Frogs and Football
by JJJJ4
Summary: Bones and Booth, before the PhDs and the military, meet in highschool. Bones is the new girl in school and Booth is the star athlete. The two meet innocently in class hours before the town gets a rude wake up call.
1. Chapter 1

It's the first day of school again. The chalkboards have been cleaned. The floors have been buffed. Even the desks have been de-gummed. It's a fresh new start for everybody.

As the clock nears eight in the morning, more and more people start filling the parking lot. Some students are squeaking at the sight of their friends; others are quietly rushing to their assigned lockers. The halls are also beginning to fill, with all the different cliques.

There's still a lot of time before the first bell rings but Seeley is there early. When he sees his group of friends, he maneuvers his way pass the crowd toward them.

"Seeley!" his best friend Chase yells. Seeley has known Chase for a lifetime. They met each other in second grade and now they're both Seniors in high school. Chase is the typical American boy with short blond hair, a square jaw and light green eyes.

"Chase!" Seeley responds when he's close enough. They give each other a man hug, the kind that only utilizes one arm.

"How you been, man?" Chase says when he releases Booth.

"Good" he responds. A blond blue eyed girl ends the conservation by grabbing Seeley and kissing him with urgency.

"I've missed you, Seeley" She tells him when she ends the kiss. She's Rebecca Stinson, his girlfriend.

"Missed you too" he responds a little dazed from the erupt kiss. The words make Rebecca smile wide and she exuberantly kisses him one more time. She hopes soon he'll say those three magic words to her.

Booth's group of friends is filled with football players but there's one other girl in the bunch with a white and red cheerleading uniform.

"Okay you too, why don't we keep this PG13" the cheerleader teasingly tells them.

"Don't be jealous, Cam" Rebecca jokes and unlatches herself from Booth. Cam is Booth's other best friend. He's only known her since freshman year, but other than Chase there no other person he trusts more.

When everybody finishes greeting to each other, they start talking about the upcoming game against Marshall, home of the ducks.

"We are going to crush Marshall! Right, Booth?" Chase says exuberantly. He looks for Booth's hand to hi-five and Booth obligingly responds.

"As long as I'm quarterback and you're my receiver" Booth replies with giant smile

"Yeah!" one of the other players adds. Booth and Chase are the star athletes at Kennedy high school, home of the panthers. They are also amongst the popular crowd of cheerleaders and rich kids.

"Hey look the bug guy's coming" Chase whispers to the crowd. They all watch as two gangly boys walk pass them in the halls. One of them has extremely curly, light brown hair and is slightly shorter than the mop haired boy next to him.

"And he's got a new nerd friend" Rebecca adds and sends the crowd of friends laughing hysterically. Booth is the only one that stays silent.

"Hpmh, watch this" Chase adds while sticking out his foot. The action trips the curly haired 'bug boy' and he lands in front of Booth.

Feeling bad for the bug boy, Booth offers to help.

"Get off him philistine!" the mop haired boy shrieks. The curly haired boy takes Booth's hand and gets up. He tries to takes his mop-haired friend away but Booth interrupts them.

Booth's eyebrows scrunch together when he answers, "I'm not a philistine, I'm a Catholic."

The mop haired boy begins to laugh, "You idiot, the word philistine is not a religion, it's person with an aversion to higher learning such as yourself."

Booth takes a step back. His cheeks flush and he feels utterly embarrassed. Chase looks at his dear friend and quickly decides his next move.

"I've got this," Chase tells Booth and turns to the two boys, "Come on boys were going dumpster diving"

…

It takes four footballer players to dump the two gangly boys in the dumpster. Booth doesn't help but he watches as people chant and encourage Chase. The whole time Booth thinks he should stop the harassment but the words never come out.

"Always got your back" Chase tells booth. Booth smiles awkwardly at his best friend but continues to say nothing. He walks back hand in hand with a giggling Rebecca.

When the crowd finally diffuses, the gangly boys finally have a chance to exit the dumpster just outside the school.

"You just had to go and call him a philistine, huh Zach" the curly haired boy tells the mop haired boy

"Well at least we've extended his vocabulary" Zach tells the bug boy.

"Next time you decide to poke fun at the star quarterback, make sure I'm not around"

"Okay" Zach agrees and takes a banana peel off his head.

A slender porcelain skinned girl with light blue eyes and dark brown hair comes into sight.

"Hey Jack, isn't that girl we met at summer camp?" Zach announces

"What is she wearing?"

The girl has on giant rubber boots with oversized overalls. Her hair is pulled back tightly and her face has smudges of mud on it. She comes up to boys with slight smile.

"Hey Zach, hey Jack" she says while the boys are still removing some of the debris from their hair and clothes.

"Hello Temperance" Zach responds enthusiastically. In his opinion there was no one smarter than Brennan Temperance and that is a high praise from him.

"Hey Temperance, whatcha' wearing?" Jack adds

"O I was chasing frogs this morning for research. I am studying amphibian physiology" she states matter-of-factly

"You're not going to change?" Zach asks. He didn't mind that she looked like she just had a mud bath but he knew how cruel the students could be.

"Yeah, I was going to change before first period, but I forgot an extra pair of shoes, so I guess I'll just wear these boots. I washed them off before I came. O what is that smell?" She responds holding her nose

"O that's us. We were in the dumpster." Zach responds while taking a whiff of himself

Brennan laughs and responds, "Why on earth would you do that?"

Jack and Zach look towards each other and respond in unison, "Football players."

"They did this to you?" she replies astonished.

"This bozo here decided to call one of them a philistine" Jack says pointing his thumb at Zach.

"I don't understand?"

"Philistine means…" Jack says before he's interrupted

"No I know what that means, I meant boo-zo" Brennan tells him, mispronouncing bozo.

Jack smiles and says, "it's a clown"

"Then why didn't you just say clown"

Jack shrugs, she had a point. "It's just something people say"

"Why?" she pushes but the warning bell interrupts her.

"You've got ten minutes to change before class. What is your first class anyway?" Zach asks

"Advanced placement biology with Mr. Quill"

Zach smiles, "Mine too. We'll be partners"

She smiles back. Zach would be a good partner to have.

"Well come on, go get changed before you get thrown in a dumpster. " Jack insists

"Okay, see you in class Zach" she states before she rushes to the nearest bathroom

…

It was the first day of school again and Mr. Quill had learned his lesson from last year. This semester he wasn't going to let the students pick their own lab partners. Last year was a disaster because he couldn't keep the students quiet, so this time he assigned the partners. He was confident in his choices.

As the students filled in the class room, they all presumably picked their own partners. The bell rang and everyone momentarily fell silent.

"Hello, my name is Mr. Quill and I am your Biology teacher. I'm sorry to inform you but this year I have chosen the lab partners" he announced. The class of 16 awed in unison. It was a small class because of the lack of seats available.

"Settle down, settle down. I'm going to read off the names as I go to each desk" he announced over the loud rumble.

Temperance turned disappointingly to her new partner in crime. This was going to be a long semester if she didn't have her right hand man. The duo had grown very fond of each other over the summer.

"Don't worry Brennan, I'm sure the teacher would have presumably paired up the only two sophomores in this class" the Zach whispered with his hand cupped around his mouth. Brennan nods in agreement with his logic.

"Zach Addy and Chase Simms" the teacher says

"Or may be not" the gangly friend says and moves to his assigned seat in front of the class

"See you after class, Zach" Brennan tells him as he leaves

The teacher reads off a couple more names and leaves Brennan last.

"And last, Temperance Brennan and Seeley Booth" he says

Brennan was the new girl in school. After a recent stint with her latest foster family she was reassigned to another. She had no idea who Seeley Booth was, so she turned to see her biology partner. Her assessment was quick.

Tall. Broad shoulders. Commendable symmetrical facial features. The boy was quite handsome. She smiles as she makes her way over to the back of the classroom.

"Hello my name is Seeley" he says and extends his hand to her

"I know the teacher just said that" she says as shakes his hand. He shrugs off the comment. He has never seen this girl before, so he automatically assumes she's new. Her blue eyes capture his full attention for a moment until he realizes he hasn't let go her hand. He immediately lets her go and tries to smooth out the presumed awkward moment.

"So are you new here?" he asks as she takes a seat next to him.

"Yes" she states candidly. He expects her to elaborate, but she doesn't. He assumes this girl is shy since most girls are shy around him.

"So are you a senior?" he asks to hear her speak again. She didn't have Rebecca's high pitched tone. Her voice was low and soothing.

"No, a sophomore" she says very to the point. She notices very quickly that his small talk doesn't bother her like small talk usually does. There's something about the way Booth looks at her or talks to her that makes her feel at ease. His voice, his eyes, or something else entirely feels entirely non-threatening. This kind of interaction does not happen often.

"How did that happen? This is a senior level class" he says. He barely scrapped past his last biology class and chose this one for Chase's sake. This was the only class they had together.

"Because I'm smarter than the average student" she tells him. There's no hint of overconfidence just blunt honesty.

The teacher interrupts them, "I'm handing out a test for each one of you… you may discuss it with your partner. It's just to see were the class stands. It won't be graded"

"Well then lucky I have you" Seeley replies with a smile. She returns the smile easily but responds, "I can't reciprocate"

Seeley looks at her questionably. This girl wasn't like any girl he had ever met or any person, if he had to honest. She was almost rude but somehow he didn't think she meant any of her words maliciously.

The teacher reached their table last.

"You have twenty minutes," he says

"Hmm… name the three basic steps to cellular respiration." Booth says out loud, "This test is pretty tough, huh?" he tells his partner. He looks over to her side of their shared table. She is finished.

"The first answer is Glycolysis, the Krebs cycle and the electron chain transport"

"Wow you are smart" he compliments her

"No that's memorization. Intelligence is not based on how many names I can memorize. Would you call a person smart if they could name all the bones in the body but not their purpose?" she states

He smiles dumbfounded. He felt so small at the moment. His partner was a genius.

The smile makes Brennan smile again. This time she's fully aware of her reaction. There was something about this boy that Brennan liked. She just wasn't sure what it was, yet. His jawline was masculine and his eyes were a chocolate brown. He was good looking but there was something about the way he talked.

"Can you help a guy out, bones? I'm not good at… memorization" He says choosing his words carefully.

She turns to him confused. "Bones? I'm not following," she says as her mouth begins to form a frown. Was he poking fun at her? She didn't like that one bit.

"It's a nickname" he tries to explain

She pouts at the response and tells him truthfully, "I don't think I like it"

He smiles trying to control his instincts to laugh. She was completely adorable when she pouted.

"Well see if grows on you"

She shrugs off the comment when she determines his words were not wicked just playful. She quickly helps him finish his test and when they finish he picks up the conversation again

"You've ever seen a football game" he starts. Football was one of his favorite topics. It had an easy flow and he was really good player.

"No" she responds looking directly at him. He didn't turn from her penetrating gaze. First to prove to her and himself that she wouldn't intimidate him. Second because her blue eyes were powerful magnets. Even the way her skin looked seemed mesmerizing.

He smiles, "Why not?"

"I don't feel the necessity to watch young men repeatedly tackle each other"

"But football is more than that. It's strategy and foresight. You should really come to the homecoming game" he says with animated hands. This was a topic he would never tire of.

"I don't think I would enjoy it" she tells him still looking at his eyes. He wasn't backing down from her eyes and she wasn't going to be the first one to fold. The idea of a silent staring match seemed odd to her but she was competitive by nature.

"Aww come on. You can cheer for me from the benches" he teased

"And why would I want to do that?" she asked again completely confused. Her presence at a game would not improve his performance. She was sure he had enough fans to admire him and fill his need for attention.

The teacher comes over to their table, when he realizes the couple is talking too much. He thought pairing his star pupil from summer camp would be good for the jock, but now he wasn't so sure.

"Are you two finished?" He asks

"Yes, we are" Brennan states and they hand in their papers.

"Well then continue but please keep it down" he says and leaves their side. Booth leans closer to Brennan never leaving her eyes.

"So what do you do for fun?" Booth asks in a whisper.

"I like to dissect things" she says. She is aware that this is a strange pastime. Many kids have laughed or have been completely grossed out by this. She's waiting for his response which seems to be delayed.

"Like what?" he asks with his one sided grin. This girl was definitely not a normal teenaged girl but she held his attention like a marching band. He definitely wanted to get to know this girl better.

On the same note, she finally realizes why she likes this boy. He's genuinely nice which, despite the hype, is a rare quality in a person.

"Right now, frogs" she says with a lit up face. He notices that this was the first time she has been eager to respond. This was her football.

"Why?" he asks begging internally for her to continue showing her passion. In his opinion people were always so fascinating when they talked about what they loved. You could learn a lot about a person's personality when they revealed their passion.

"They're easy to find and I am interested in their physiology" she says with a smile. He likes her smile, its sweet. She's not really cold or rude, she just needs a little coaxing he tells himself.

"Okay class turn in your papers. That's enough time" the teacher says and like that their staring contest ends abruptly.

…

They spent the rest of class going over the syllabus and when the bell rings everybody rushes out. Brennan and booth are last to walk out.

"Good thing, you're my partner" he tells her still looking over the syllabus

She's about to respond when a tall leggy blonde attacks Booth.

"Seeley, I've missed you so much" the Rebecca says with her arms wrapped around Booth's neck.

"Missed you too" he says a little breathless. Brennan slips away before he notices and meets up with Zach.

"Of all the jerks in this school I get stuck with Chase!" Zach tells her as they begin to walk through the halls

"He seems okay to me"

"Please… he's a complete idiot. How was your partner anyway?" he asks in grumpy mood

"He's okay," she responds with a slight smiles

"Well good cause you're stuck with him all semester"

**A/N: The actual plotline will come next chapter. My good friend, Lotti, read this chapter three months ago and wants me to finish the story so I'm hoping that posting it will push me to write more. There's some episode references in the mix, like the philistine reference. Anyway I hope you liked the first chapter :) **


	2. Jane Simms

The day passed by fairly quickly for Brennan. Before she had time to process all of the new information, the lunch bell rang and she was exiting her creative writing class with Jack by her side. The curriculum wasn't difficult, she was sure she would exceed in all of her classes but the jumble in her mind needed some organization.

"This class is totally gonna blow!" Jack commented as he raised his hands dramatically in the air. Brennan snapped out of her train of thought to give him her undivided attention. Jack was a strange fellow she told herself, but he was nice at the core. In addition, he had proven himself to be quite the junior entomologist at summer camp. Bugs weren't her thing but she respected his hobby.

"Why? I think this class sounds like… fun," Brenna replied contemplating the appropriate word. She often found herself struggling to communicate with most kids her age. Their vernacular never ceased to puzzle her.

"Fun!? I want science! This is…" Jack said before someone crashed into him from behind. The drop was in slow motion since the plummet was due more to surprise than brute strength. The gradualness of the fall allowed him to extend his arms before his face met the floor. He quickly looked up to find the culprit.

"What the hell…" he said slowly losing steam at the end of the sentence. There she was, the beautiful girl from creative writing. The teacher wasn't able to pronounce her real name but she said to call her Angela. An angel… that sounded appropriate in Jack's head. Every move she made was in slow motion. All of her beautiful brunette hair seemed to be blown back by a nonexistent fan. It was just like the movies. She smiled at him and all of his built-up anger diffused into nothingness. Her smile made his stomach flutter with millions of butterflies.

He could clearly see that her mouth was moving and that she was telling him something but he couldn't hear a word. He just stared up at her enjoying the view. When she started to look at him strangely, he snapped out his trance.

"Wha?" he answered forgetting the 't' at the end.

"I asked if you were okay. You fell pretty hard. I'm really sorry, I was in a rush," she told him with a new smile, as if completely aware of his reaction to her. He quickly tried to redeem himself by lifting himself to sit on his ankles and brush the dirt from his thighs.

"Um… yeah… I'm totally fine. Just a little twinge, no big deal or anything," he said massaging his wrists," I'm good. You know, nothing serious." He was highly aware that he was rambling but unable to stop his mouth from running away without him.

"Well, good. Do you need a hand?" she asked with her arm stretched out. He reached for it slowly to savor the moment. The touch felt electric, well at least from his side. She must have felt it too, right?

Angela helped the boy up quickly. She really shouldn't have been running so fast but she was excited to see Chase after missing out on him this morning. New town, new boyfriend, what was not to love? She finally realized the blue eyed girl when she helped the nervous boy up. She would have noticed the girl sooner if she wasn't so worried about the boy.

"Hi I am Angela," she said to both of them.

There weren't many things Brennan could catch when it came to social interactions. If she had a choice she would rather read a book than go to the movies. So she was confused when Jack lost his ability to form any sensible sentences. She thought he might have hit his head when he fell, but she was sure his hands stopped his head from crashing on the floor.

She wasn't sure what to do. Should she call the nurse? When he said he was okay and Angela finally introduced herself, Brennan was finally back on track.

"I'm Temperance," she said taking out her hand. Angela enthusiastically shook her hand back. They both turned to Hodgins but he was lost in his own world again.

"This is Jack but he seems to have acquired a head injury," Brennan assessed

Angela smiled. "I think he's fine. Just give him a few minutes. See you guys next class!" she said before she took her leave.

Jack popped into life again when she took off.

"I just made a complete ass of myself, didn't I?" He asked Brennan.

Brennan looked at him strangely. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm going to be virgin till I'm 40," he said when he began walking again.

"That is highly unlikely but if you say so, then I agree," Brennan said with a small smile. Jack ran his hands over his face dragging the skin to exaggerate his frustration.

Brennan shrugged it off and followed Jack to his locker where he had placed his lunch.

…

Most of the crowd had made their way back to the cafeteria by the time they made their way to his locker. She waited patiently as he fumbled his way through his backpack to put away some books. She was leaning on the lockers next to him when noticed the picture of a girl on the bulletin board.

She was young girl with long blonde hair and emerald green eyes. She was pretty but that wasn't the reason she caught Brennan's attention. She had a distinctive look in her eye that Brennan recognized.

It was fear.

She had walked up to it subconsciously. When she was close enough to touch it, she traced her name Jane Simms. She was about to read the writing underneath the picture when someone approached her.

"Lil' Janey, been missin' for some weeks now," the custodian commented. Brennan looked at the man. He had salt and pepper five o'clock shadow and receding hairline. He wasn't much taller than her but he had a stout build. His facial symmetry was off due to the excess skin he had developed with age. Brennan looked at him with suspicion first though his disheveled physical appearance would have scared any other teenager.

"Was it a kidnapping?" she asked

"Dunno, coulda been. Them Simms gots a lotta monay in them pockets," he responded. Brennan assessed the man's accent. It it didn't sound very educated. She didn't judge him, though she had always tried to keep her accent neutral like a newscaster.

"They are rich?" she responded unsure of his response.

"Yup, her pop the mayor of town. Her mama an air of the oils company," he said continuing to broom.

"Air? Do you mean heiress?" she responded

"Yeah, the girl's granddaddy got more monay than the lord himself," he said shaking his head.

"And nobody knows what happen to her?"

"Them police gots nothing. They be searching high and low from that girl, she a nice one too. Kinda quiet."

Brennan looked at the girl one more time. "They have to find her…" she whispered

"You not like the other kids, are y'sa?" he asked her

"What do you mean?"

"That picture been up two weeks, not one kid has cared one lick about her. She don't got any friends. Bit of a loner. Would have gotten picked on if her brother wasn't the star receiver. You're the first kid to stop and reallys looks at that picture."

"No, I am not like every other kid in this school. I'm different…"

"But it's a good different. We needs more kids like you,"

Brennan smiled at the custodian and noticed his name tag said Jake. "Thanks Jake."

"What's your name?"

"Temperance,"

"Well temperance, run along… lunch will be over soon. If you need anything my office is right theres." The custodian pointed at the door down the hall.

Jack was waiting for her at his locker. The custodian had always given him and all the other kids the creeps.

…

Booth had a surreal feeling as he sat in his regular spot at the cafeteria. It was like he was there but only as a bystander. Rebecca was laughing with some of the cheerleaders. Chase was arm wrestling with one of the line backers. Everybody was talking or laughing but his head wasn't in it today.

He sipped on his coke again to help the raging headache he was developing. The people around him weren't relieving it one bit. It was then he heard a familiar squeak. It was the sound he had heard earlier this morning. The sound of rubber boots rubbing against the floor.

He turned around to see the blue-eyed girl from biology. He finished his coke with another gulp and got up to get another one.

"Hey, where you going?" Cam asked when he moved too abruptly

"I wanna another coke. Kinda thirsty," he answered

"Coke will only exasperate your thirst. The caffeine in it is a diuretic," she replied. Some of the girls snickered at her response. Cam was smart one. She just rarely liked her intelligence on display so she added, "or so I've been told. Grab me coke too."

Booth made no other comment and quickly made it to bones' side.

"Hey bones!" he greeted. Suddenly his headache had disappeared.

Bones looked up in surprise. She was currently deciding whether the cafeteria food could actually be considered as edible.

"Will you call me that every time you see me?" she asked with a furrowed eyebrows.

"Maybe, I'm still testing the waters with it," he responded, "why are you grabbing food so late? The bell is gonna ring soon."

Brennan decided not to ask about the expression 'testing the waters'. She honestly did not mind the nickname, Booth wasn't saying it maliciously.

"I had a conversation with your custodian and it took longer than I initially presumed," she answered taking the custard onto her plate.

"Don't eat the custard. You're asking for food poisoning if you do," he said and put the custard back, "And do you mean Jake the janitor? Guy's a creep."

Brennan reexamined her food options before she answered, "Have you ever met the man? He's quite insightful of the students in this school."

"I've never actually met the man but he just gives all the student the willies," Booth said as he reached over for the red and green jello.

"The willies?"

"Cherry or lime?" he asked her with both the red and green jello in hand.

"Cherry," she replied. He placed the red one on her tray and returned the green one.

"You know the heebie-jeebies?" she shook her head still confused, "The creeps."

"O! he scares you?" she asked as she paid for her meal. He grabbed two cokes and quickly paid before she was able to leave his side.

"He doesn't scare me," he replied a bit offended

"We you implied otherwise. Though I don't understand the basis of your fear. The man was very polite to me."

Booth dropped the subject since he saw her viewpoint. He was judging a man on the sole basis of what other people had said about him.

"So how's your first day been?" he asked changing the subject

Brennan bit her lip as she contemplated her next question. "Do you know anything about Jane Simms?"

"Chase's sister?"

**Sorry about the slow updates. I'll work on being faster **


	3. Squints

"Who's Chase?" Bones replied as the first warning bell rang. The crowd of students began to move but Bones and Booth stood their ground in front of each other. The conversation wasn't over.

Bones' head titled as she waited for Booth to reply. Booth was waiting for the bell to complete its last ding but at the same time he was staring at Bones peculiarly. What was her sudden interest in Jane? How did it come about? The interest was particularly odd since Bones had never met Jane. Besides Chase and Booth, no one at school cared a damn about her. Chase would get those insincere 'I'm sorry for your sister' comments but even those were starting to die down.

Booth cleared his throat before he replied, "Chase is good friend of mine. Jane is his sister. She's been missing for a couple of weeks."

Bones immediately saw the change in his expression. She wasn't entirely sure what the expression stood for but she could tell the Booth was feeling something. She picked up the conversation once again feeling the need to know more about this mysterious Jane, "Does the family have any idea what happened to her?"

Booth thought about what to tell her. No one had wanted to know anything about Jane. They simply thought she was going to magically reappear. Jane was not a favorite of the town. In all sincerity she was an outcast, since she was peculiarly strange and socially awkward. Most of the town's affection was left for the Mayor's son, Chase. Booth decided to tell her what he knew. He wasn't sure if he should be telling her but he had good feeling about Bones and his intuition was hardly ever wrong.

"They found a note yesterday. It was written in her diary. She ran away," Booth commented.

From the far corner as the students began to put away their trays and head toward their lockers, Jack tapped Zach to get his attention and motioned to Brennan.

"What is she doing?" Jack asked. Squints never talked to the athletes or any of the popular kids. Jack and all of his colleagues were named squints when the Booth once claimed they like to 'they like to squint at things'. The name stuck like glue to them and they were forever branded squints. The name wasn't always said in good-nature, many times they considered the name quite derogatory.

"I don't know but Seeley is her lab partner. Maybe he had a question about class?" Zach answered with a shrug.

"This isn't going to end well. We should have warned her," Jack added as he picked up his tray

Zach thought about it for awhile. The popular kids had always been cruel to them. Booth had facilitated their journey to the dumpster just this morning. Zach still had a distinct nauseating smell in his clothing. Telling his father and mother why he had ketchup, mustard and mystery stains all over his clothing was not going to be fun. Zach quickly decided that he needed to help Brennan before she became another victim of a cruel prank. Being a squint in this school was not an easy task. The popular kids enjoyed being mean to anyone different or even anyone who liked something different.

Zach left his tray on the table and quickly came behind Booth to grab Brennan's attention.

She was finishing her question, "Ran away? Are you sure?" when she saw Zach's face. She smiled at his presence. He was quickly becoming one of her favorite people to be around.

Seeley turned around to see what she smiling about. His sudden need to know what made her happy struck him as strange so he decided that he just wanted to see who was intruding their private conversation.

When he saw Zach, he didn't recognize him. Zach wasn't new to the school but squints were often forgotten. Jack was the only known squint since his passion about bugs had grown into a common joke between the rest of the student body. Though Seeley could have sworn he had seen Zach before, it was on the tip of his tongue.

"Hey Temperance, do you want to walk to class together?" Zach asked when they both looked at him. Booth looked at the boy more closely. The boy looked and smelled like he didn't shower. Bones shouldn't be hanging out with this guy.

"Excuse me but I was having a conversation with Temperance, can you give us second?" he asked the little boy hoping that would be enough to shoo him way. In Booth quick assessment Zach was smaller and scrawnier. But why did he care if he was stronger and taller than this boy. He wasn't going to fight him. What was he doing?

Zach raised his chin as a sign of courage. "Well… you're going to make her late to class," Zach answered

Brennan quickly looked at her watch and noticed Zach was right. She took two quick bites of her pizza and took the cherry jello in hand. When she grabbed Zach by the wrist and took off yelling, "I'll talk to later Seeley," Booth knew exactly why he had been assessing Zach. He was checking out the competition. He knew this because her attachment to the little boy struck a jealous chord in him.

At the same time, Jack had joined them in rushing to class and suddenly Zach's face had clicked in his memory. Bones' new friend was … the boy Chase had thrown in the dumpster this morning. This revelation was definitely bad news. Bones was bound not to like him if she was a good friends with the squints.

…

It was a stroke of good luck when Brennan learned she had class with both Zach and Jack. Advance placement Calculus was very selective, so they were bound to be in the same class. The teacher had been running late so the students chatted amongst themselves as they waited.

"That doesn't sound like him?" Brennan argued as her two boys finished telling her the complete story of this morning's incident.

"It's all true… and Seeley was right there cheering Chase on as we got thrown into the dumpster," Zach added. He wasn't entirely sure about the last part but he assumed booth was since everyone was chanting.

Mr. Addison walked in a bit red faced that very second and coughed to get the small class's attention. All three of them quickly turned their attention toward the front of the class.

Brennan's mind was only half present throughout the first class. The other half was … disappointed in Seeley Booth. Her intuition had never been her strong suit but she was hoping this one time it wasn't wrong. She really wanted to like Booth but she had erroneously presumed he was genuinely nice and she didn't like to be wrong.

…

Booth counted down the minutes as the first day of class was coming to an end. He was itching to get out his last class, statistics. When he looked away from the clock above the chalk board he saw that Cam was looking at him suspiciously.

"You okay?" she mouthed

He nodded and wondered why she would be asking him that. Cam took in his confused manner and leaned in closer to whisper, "You seem a little … on edge."

He shrugged and whispered back, "Just wanna get out of here."

Cam didn't push the conversation any further and continued doodling as the Math teacher droned on about the expectations of his students. Booth continued to think about the squints and how none of them had ever liked him. Though it had never bothered him before, he didn't like the idea of Bones disliking him.

…

When the last class ended, Brennan made her way quickly to her locker. Zach and Jack had told her about their plans to meet with the rest of the squints at a local pizza place but she kindly declined. She had made prior plans and she had, had pizza for lunch.

She quickly grabbed the extra clothes from her locker and since the woman's locker rooms were so close walked into there. She noticed then that right after school was not the best time to change in the woman's locker room. All of the girls from fall sports were changing. She found a secluded corner for herself so that she could have some privacy. She was taking off her boots and exchanging her school clothes for her overalls when a pretty dark skinned girl approached her.

"Hey, I'm Cam," she introduced herself.

Brennan in a bra and underwear looked at Cam in surprise.

"Umm… I'd like to change before I greet you. It's social custom to be clothed when meeting someone for the first time," Brennan responded. Cam smiled but found Brennan's response a bit cold. Cam let it slid since the Brennan had a point. In all honesty she had not noticed Brennan's lack of clothes. All the cheerleaders were accustomed to changing right in front of each other. Though they weren't complete strangers. Cam began changing herself as she recalled why she was trying to strike up a conversation with blue eyed girl.

It was during lunch when Booth had suddenly gotten up for a coke. Instead immediately heading for the drinks he headed straight for the dessert. That's when Rebecca, her girl best friend, had leaned into Cam and asked, "Who is she?

Cam shrugged. The blue-eyed girl was probably new and Booth had always been so friendly that he didn't doubt he was trying to make her comfortable in the new school. Cam immediately saw Rebecca getting angst-y as Booth reached over to get the new girl some jello. Cam thought it was kind gesture. Rebecca thought it was the end of the world.

"Find out who she is… please?" Rebecca pleaded with big eyes. She didn't like looking like the neurotic girlfriend she truly was, so as Booth's best friend Cam had to do some of the digging from time to time. Cam wasn't fond of it but if it calmed Rebecca down then so be it. Most of the time Rebecca's imagination had gotten ahead of her.

When Cam finished changing herself, she looked over at Brennan once again. She wasn't sure what the Blue-eyed girl was doing but putting on muddy overall was not attractive. Just as Brennan was about to turn around Mindy, the cheerleading captain, came over.

Cam hoped Mindy would just ignore Booth's new friend.

"You ready, Cam?" Mindy asked as she put her long blonde hair into a tight and high ponytail. Cam nodded and placed her bag in a locker when Mindy's two satellites came over to flank her. They took one look at the blue eyed girl and began their assault.

"Eww, what the fuck are you wearing?" Isabella commented on Brennan's muddy overalls. Strike one. Brennan finished putting on her oversized muddy boots and said nothing.

"It looks like you've been rolling around with the pigs!?" Priscilla added while laughing. Strike two. Brennan started to put her hair in a ponytail. Cam waited for the last strike holding her small hands in fists, hating it.

"Don't make fun of her family Priscilla, it's not very nice," Mindy said. Strike three. The satellites started laughing and Brennan just finished her ponytail. Cam looked at her cautiously, hoping she wouldn't start crying. She thought hard about saying something but nothing came to mind. The trio was a deadly and had no mercy on people outside or even inside the clique.

Brennan looked at all the girls in a calm way. She even included Cam in her scan. The same group of girls in every school. Brennan didn't want to play their game so she put her stuff in her locker and smiled as she walked around the girls toward the exit.

Cam looked at her wanting to say or do anything but as the trio laughed louder and Cam stayed stumped.

…

Brennan had been though a lot since she was thirteen. Her parents had left her alone with her nineteen year old brother without a clue on where they went. She then jumped around from foster home to foster home, which meant from school to school. Now she was fifteen and through all that she developed very thick skin.

She'd met people like Mindy over and over. Sometimes Mindy was blonde, and sometimes she had shiny brown hair but she lived at every school.

Brennan knew Mindy would try to make her life miserable if she joined the game. The game of who could make the best joke. So Brennan had decided a long time ago that she wasn't going to get involved. Brennan was aware that she was odd but she had no personal qualms with her own personality. She had nothing to prove to the Mindys of the world. So any hurtful words left no scars on Brennan's thick skin.

…

Brennan went by Jake's office to grab a bucket after her encounter with Mindy. He was suspicious about her necessity of a bucket but she explained her plan to catch a frog at the swamp nearby.

She came away with a net and a bucket. With her supplies she made her way past the football fields to the swamp on the side of the school. Once there she drowned out the sounds of the football coach yelling and the cheerleaders cheering with her IPod. With that she forgot about Mindy, Priscilla, and Isabella. They didn't matter anymore, it was just her and the swamp.

A half an hour into frog hunting, she had nothing in her empty bucket. She was so engrossed in her hunt that when the small kid appeared in front her she got scared.

She caught her breath before she said anything.

"Hello little boy, where are your parents?" She asked, when she realized he was alone. The little boy gave her a small smile and looked at Brennan carefully before he said, "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

Brennan looked at him suspiciously. Well he had already said that why not answer the question. She thought carefully about her next move and examined the boy. She immediately saw the bruise on his left cheek bone. He had been struck by someone much taller and stronger than him.

She chewed over that fact for a while. She couldn't presume anything. She needed all the facts before she made any conclusions. She could not simply guess the history behind the bruise. So instead she focused on the task right in front of her, helping the lost boy find his way.

"I fell," he answered covering his bruise. He was lying. The bruise would have made a much different pattern.

"What's your name?" she asked hoping he would answer the question. He shook his head and 'zipped his lips' with his fingers.

Brennan thought about the predicament for another while. She didn't have many interactions with kids. They were highly illogical but in many ways they were much easier to please than adults. The thought gave her an idea.

"Well, my name is Temperance, see if we both know each other's name then we won't be strangers," she said.

The little boy scrunched up his nose as he thought about her reasoning.

He then smiled and said, "my name is Jacob!"

Brennan breathed out a sigh of relief and crouched down to the boy's level. "So Jacob, where are your parents?" she asked

He shrugged and took a peek inside her empty bucket.

"Are you collecting rocks?" he asked with one hand on his hip, "You're not very good at it."

Brennan's eyebrows furrowed at the small insult.

"I'm actually collecting frogs… but yes I'm not very good at it," she answered truthfully. His eyes lit up with word frogs.

"I saw two big ones over there!" he exclaimed pointing further down the swamp.

Brennan got excited as well and decided that she would help the boy find his parents as soon as she captured her first frog. The boy saw her excitement and quickly took off for the frog. He wanted to catch the frog for the pretty girl. He was too fast for Brennan who was still carrying the net and the bucket. When he finally reached the frogs he was a few yards in front of her.

He quickly saw the frog he had been hoping to find but when he approached it he found something…

He screamed at the sight.

Brennan unaware of what he had just seen, Brennan yelled, "Don't scare the frog!"

He screamed again while jumping around. Brennan then noticed it was something bad. She dropped the bucket and the net and caught up with him

She tried to calm him down but he was really scared. When she turned to see what he was pointing at, she saw the big frog sitting on top of a skull missing half its skin.


	4. The Metric system

**So sorry but I mixed up a character's name!? I thought Booth's little brother was named Jacob not Jared. I'll try to be more careful. Again sorry but Jacob is Jared. Also Thweeeet is the sound a whistle makes… sorry if that's wrong. **

The Panther's head coach had his arms crossed and his whistle ready to blow as he looked out onto his varsity team. They looked good but he'd never tell them that. They could always run a little bit harder.

_Thweeeet!_

The entire team got up to jog in place.

_Thweeet!_

The entire team dropped to their hands. One push up.

_Thweeeet!_

The entire team got back up and jogged quickly in place.

_Thweeeet! Thweeet! Thweeeet!_

"Alright, hit the showers!" The coach yelled as each of his players ran passed him. He tapped each one on the shoulder until he saw Seeley and Chase. The two friends could always be spotted together. They were practically joined at the hip and that helped on the field when it looked like they read each other's minds.

"Seeley! Chase! Hold on a second!" The coach yelled as the two took off their helmets. The rest of the team ran passed them as they approached the coach.

"What's up coach?" Chase asked

The coach took off his hat and scratched this head before he spoke. As he looked at each one he saw the key to winning the state championship. These were his golden boys.

"This is our year boys, "Coach Martin started, "You're both seniors now and I know you've both got things on your mind. Chase I am still praying for your sister, but… you know, when you get out on that field… let the rest world just melt away and let's start this season right by crushing those Ducks!"

The golden boys nodded their heads as Coach Martin reached in to his pocket for something. When he pulled them out, the boys could see they were captain patches.

"Don't know how to put this darn things on but they should be on your uniform by this Friday," Coach Martin said as handed each one their patch. He walked way soon after, having nothing else to say. Coach Martin had never been a man of many words.

Booth looked at his patch intently. He had always been good at sports and it made him happy when he got noticed for it since he wasn't a school kind-a guy. Chase smacked Booth's back to congratulate him.

"Seeley Booth, hitting the big times!" Chase joked when he saw Booth look at his patch meaningfully.

Booth playfully pushed him away. "Hey, I take what I can get. Not everyone can be the town's golden boy Chase."

Chase rolled his eyes. He had always been referred as the golden boy. He was good at school, sports, and could converse in any topic. Rewards were always given to him.

Rebecca came up to them a second later. She looked worried and frazzled.

"O god, Seeley… I'm SO sorry. I swear I turned around for second and he was gone," she rambled quickly with her hands tangled in her long blonde hair.

It took Booth a split second to realize what she was talking about.

"Where did you see Jared last?" he asked quickly scanning the bleachers for his little brother. It didn't take long for Seeley to snap into big brother mode. Chase was right there along with him, almost twice as worried because of his sister.

"I… I saw him by the gate," she said pointing far west corner toward the swamp area.

Booth immediately turned his head to scan where she was pointing. The swamp was on a downhill slope so he couldn't see the entire commotion but there was definitely something going on. He took off without another word. Chase and Rebecca followed close.

…

Temperance was standing by the police tape holding Jared's hand as a team of police officers took the body out of the swamp. Sheriff Saroyan had told her to stay near since she was the one who had placed the call. He still needed to interrogate her but he had missed his chance when a crowd of people began to arrive. It was the sirens that alerted the town to the scene. He kept peace in a quiet town, so finding dead bodies was not familiar territory.

Worst of all, the town's only coroner was in Fiji for his only daughter's destination wedding. Dr. Grey had left his interns in charge of his work in his week long absence. So far Sheriff Saroyan was not impressed.

Both of the interns were staring at the partially skinned corpse when Sheriff Saroyan approached them. He crouched down to Vincent first since Daisy was not his favorite.

"Mr. Nigel-Murray, what are your initial findings?"

Vincent eyes bugged at the question. He wasn't expecting something like this to happen during Dr. Grey's absence. He had just had a bachelor's degree for christsakes, his usual jobs consisted of retrieving coffee and doing paperwork. Dr. Grey wasn't on the cutting edge of his field and Vincent still had a lot to learn.

Officer Saroyan waited a moment for Vincent to collect his thoughts. Officer Saroyan knew Vincent was smart kid but he wasn't a professional . He'd have to wait for Dr. Grey for any official findings. When Vincent didn't answer Officer Saroyan tried again, this time with more encouragement.

"Come on Vincent, work some Dr. Grey magic," Officer Saroyan offered

"Did you know the word 'Abracadabra' was first uttered to cure hay fever?" Vincent said in his British accent.

Officer Saroyan smiled at the response. "No I didn't but what can you tell me about the corpse?"

Daisy coughed to get the officer's attention. "Officer Saroyan I believe this corpse was a female, roughly 1.7 to 1.8 meters in height and about 80 to 86 kilograms," she said with a pompous smile and a lifted head that begged to be congratulated. She wasn't further than Vincent in education, she was just very eager to sound and be smarter than anyone around her.

Vincent looked at her strangely. "You believe this a woman?" he asked

"Of course, look at the hip bones!" she exclaimed

"They're narrow," he whispered

"They're wide!" she rebutted

Officer Saroyan lifted himself from the ground as the interns began to bicker even louder.

"Both of you! Quiet!" he yelled and they both stopped arguing, "Neither of you is actually qualified… we're just have to wait for Dr. Grey to return. In the meantime… just try to preserve the body as best you can."

Daisy snuffed as Vincent pursed his lips. Nonetheless they began wrapping the body to bring back to the lab.

…

Seeley was breathing hard as he finally got to the scene. Chase wasn't far behind and Rebecca trailed behind the two.

Seeley asked the first person he could find in the crowd of people to see what was happening. It was Miss Patty, the town's gossip queen.

"Miss Patty what's the commotion about?" he asked as Chase came to his side

"Seeley, Chase so good to see you boys. Turns out they found a dead body in the swamp," she said with exaggerated eyebrow movements.

Chase heart skipped a beat. His sister's face immediately came to mind.

"Do they who it is?" Chase asked impulsively

Miss Patty shook her head.

Chase took off in the next moment to the front of the crowd, past the police tape. Seeley said bye to Miss Patty and quickly followed. Officer Saroyan stopped them before they reached the interns crouched over the corpse.

"Hold on you guys. This is crime scene you can't just come charging in like it's the football field," Officer Saroyan said. He knew both of them fairly well, since his daughter Camille was friends with them.

"Is it her? Mr. Saroyan is it my sister?" Chase said desperate for an answer.

Officer Saroyan looked at Chase with sadness. "I can't tell you yes or no. I'm sorry but the corpse is unrecognizable. I'll call your house as soon as I can confirm the identity."

Chase gulped as Booth put one arm around him.

"Come on, Chase. Let's hit the showers, he'll call."

Chase nodded his head absentmindedly as all of the worst case scenarios flew through his head.

"Take care, Chase!" Officer Saroyan yelled as began their way back to the crowd. Seeley was lifting the yellow police tape when he heard someone yell, "Seeley!"

He turned to see the source, it was his little brother standing next to Bones.

…

Bones stood still as she saw Seeley staring at her. Apparently little Jared knew him. A second later a blonde girl came crashing into Jared.

"Jared! I thought I lost you!" Rebecca said she repeatedly kissed and hugged Jared. The action pulled Jared's hand from Brennan's hand. Jared squirmed in her embrace. It was too mushy for his tastes.

Seeley seeing his brother in one piece came up slowly. Chase walked next to him at the same pace.

"Seeley! I found him!" Rebecca squealed. The relief that washed through her was immeasurable.

Rebecca let go of little Jared once Booth was close. Booth smiled and crouched down to Jared's level.

"Hey buddy, you can't just go wandering off like that. It's dangerous," Booth told him

"I got bored and I saw her from the bleachers," Jared said pointing at Bones.

Bones smiled to one-sided still trying to fit all of the pieces together. How did Jared know booth?

"I was just collecting frogs when he came up behind me. I wasn't aware that you were acquainted with the child," she said. It was dry and cold as if Booth was a complete stranger.

"We found the bones!" Jared said with animated hands and wide eyes.

Seeley's face dropped and he looked at Bones suspiciously.

"Not my initial intention," she said feeling a bit judged. Though she wasn't aware that Booth was severely protective over his little brother.

"You should've gotten Seeley as soon as you saw Jared! Everybody knows he's Seeley's younger brother" Rebecca intruded, "Poor kid is probably scarred for life now."

Chase scoffed at her comment. "Becks, this could have all been avoided if you were playing closer attention to him," Chase added

Bones wasn't completely sure she was guessing the blond boy was Chase Simms. He had the same rare green eye color as Jane from her picture.

"Let's just settle down all of us. Jared is safe and sound," Booth interrupted

Bones debated her next words but then thought them absolutely necessary since Chase was right in front of her.

"I immediately thought it was her too," Bones said when things calmed.

All eyes were on her.

"Bones, I don't think this is the time," Booth replied. This was a really sore subject right now. She shouldn't be bringing Jane up at the moment.

"Stop calling me Bones. My name is Brennan," she rebutted with a small bite to her voice. Booth was not the man she thought he was and right now he needed to trust her or believe in her.

Booth was thrown by the reply but Bones made no move to apologize.

"It's not her," Bones said looking directly at Chase.

Chase looked at her bewildered. "How do you know?" Chase whispered

"Your sister is short. The picture on her wall said she was five foot one. The female intern measured the corpse and mentioned the height was between 1.7 to 1.8 meters," Bones said matter-of-factly.

"I don't know meters. It's like 3 feet in a meter, right?" Chase asked trying to do the math in head but unable due to the shock of the situation.

"The person was more than five feet six inches." Bones calculated

Chase breathed a sigh of relief.

Booth looked over as they zipped the corpse in the body bag.

"Who do you think it is?" Booth asked

**Sorry it wasn't Bones and booth orientated. There will be more next time. I'm setting myself a week goal to write a chapter. So expect updates every Thursday. **

**FYI America hasn't truly adopted the metric system yet. SO if you're like Chase! How do you not know!? Well that's the reason…**

**Miss Patty ….. yea Gilmore girls slipped in subconsciously **


	5. People matter

**The update is a day early because I have a busy day tomorrow, the rest of the updates will be on Thursday. **

When the body was encased and ready, Officer Saroyan asked the interns to place it in the van. He then looked at his notes and reminded himself about Temperance Brennan. She was the girl who had called the body in. He wasn't suspecting her of the crime but it was protocol to question anyone involved.

He looked around to spot her and found her next to Chase, Seeley and Rebecca. He also knew Rebecca because of his daughter. He found her to be quite silly compared his own daughter. Nonetheless, there weren't many teenage girls as bright and calm as Camille.

When he walked up to them, he said his greetings and turned to look at Brennan last.

"So, I still need to speak with you, is okay if we drive to the station? It's bit crowded," he said pointing out the sea of people whispering around him. This was big news for the small town.

Brennan nodded her head and followed him to his car. She wasn't nervous. She had spoken to police officers before and none of other experiences had been bad.

…

Officer Saroyan sat her down at his desk thinking the interrogation room was unnecessary. He asked her if she wanted water or snacks but she declined both. He grabbed a cup of coffee quickly and situated himself at his desk.

"So, you're new to the town?" he asked simply as he opened his notebook.

"Fairly new, I've been here since the summer but I spent most of it at Franz Boaz Camp," she said trying to be as cooperative as possible.

"My daughter applied to the camp, but decided not to go when it disrupted her time at cheerleading camp," he commented. She said nothing. The camp had a difficult application process and she wasn't sure why his daughter would choose one over the other, so she said nothing. She simply waited for his next question.

Officer Saroyan stretched the silence until he was sure she wasn't going to say anything and moved on to the next question.

"What were you doing at the swamp?"

"Collecting frogs"

He looked at her strangely. She shrugged.

"Why?"

"I'm interested the biological and physical part of anthropology. I was simply putting some of the methods of camp into practice," she said

Officer Saroyan brushed off his confusion of her hobbies and moved on to the next question.

"How did you come about the body?"

"During my search Jared had joined me. He said he had seen some frogs farther down the swamp, he spotted the body initially."

"Did you tamper with the corpse?"

"No, that would have compromised the evidence."

He smiled at her response. Temperance was not like Rebecca at all. She actually reminded her of his daughter.

"Well, I think that's it for now, unless you have anything to add?" he said closing his notebook.

Temperance thought about the body for a moment. She had no additional information on the identification or context surrounding the body but she did have a lingering question.

"Do you think the body has anything to do with Jane Simms?" she asked

Officer Saroyan eyes popped back up at her. He guessed she had heard though the rumor mill. He was also guessing that many people had the same question.

"I can't answer that and even if I could I still have no hard evidence," he explained

"How's the search going?"

"Not well, but we did come across some new evidence lately," he responded

"That she ran away?"

"How did you know?"

"I don't think she ran away"

"Did you know her personally? I only have one friend on file, and it would be great to get another one."

"No, I did not know her."

"Then we shouldn't be discussing this."

She ignored his last comment. "Are you still going to look for her?"

"It less of a priority, since kidnapping has been ruled out."

"So you're not looking for her?"

"There's just not much we can go on," he answered truthfully

"There has to be. No one disappears or runs away without any evidence. Fran Boaz's forensic week insisted that it's only possible if you're not looking hard enough."

She didn't mean to offend him or his work ethic but comment came out ill-mannered.

"Where can I reach you if I any further questions?" he asked curtly.

…

Brennan was worked to up to a fit when she stepped out of the police station. The Jane search was being moved to lower priority. As in, they were going to wait for her to come back home, when her 'teenage rebellion' was over. She had been classified under runaway. Brennan didn't think she had run away.

People mattered. Jane mattered. She had to matter to someone and if there wasn't anyone who cared enough, then Jane would matter to Brennan.

Brennan whipped out her phone to call her foster dad when she saw Jared playing on the station's freshly cut grass. She scanned the lawn for Seeley and found him on a bench facing away from her. Brennan was sooo not in the mood to talk to him.

It wasn't anything logical or straight-forward. Seeley had yet to hurt her directly in any significant way but he had hurt her friends. Brennan decided it was loyalty to her friends that had her covering her face and walking in the opposite direction. It wasn't that Seeley got under her skin…

Brennan scrolled down her contact list to find her foster dad when her name was called.

"Temperance!" the little boy yelled. She waved hello from her distance and pushed the call button.

_Ring, Ring, Rin-_

_Temperance, Are you ready to get picked up? _

"I am, Mr. Johnson but… I'm actually at the police station…" Brennan said slowly. She wasn't sure how he would react. She had recently been taken in by an elderly couple who treated her very fairly. They gave her space and allowed to her to roam. They also understood that from time to time she had gotten herself in a few… pickles. Mrs. Johnson called her spirited. Mr. Johnson told her it was her determination with a sprinkle of stubbornness.

_Are you okay?_

"I am fine, we can discuss it over dinner?" Brennan suggested

Mr. Johnson laughed quietly and said_ I'll come by in fifteen minutes. _Brennan said goodbye and hung up the phone. She hadn't done anything wrong she told herself. They wouldn't be mad… not like her last foster parents. The Johnsons were good people. Though her instincts were often wrong.

Brennan was in the middle of a train of thought when suddenly she felt something wrap around her legs. She looked down to find Jared hugging her.

"Temperance! You're free!" he told enthusiastically. He was happy she wasn't locked up in jail.

"What do you mean?" Brennan asked with small smile.

She heard footsteps come and looked up to find a freshly showered Seeley.

"I tried to tell him you weren't going to jail," Seeley said and suddenly her smile disappeared. He noticed the change in her expression very clearly.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him. Booth gave her lopsided grin and turned his head from her eyes. He was feeling them penetrate through him.

"Jared wanted to make sure you were okay," Booth coughed out

"I told him, I was the one who found the bones! Not you! You shouldn't be going to jail, I should!" the little boy cried

Temperance laughed at the absurdity. Jared frowned, so Temperance stopped. Children were much easier to read than adults. Temperance didn't want to make the little boy sad.

"I am not going to jail Jared and you're not going to jail," Temperance said very clearly. Jared hugged her even tighter. Then the sound of an ice cream truck came down the street and Jared turned to see.

"Do you want ice cream? Seeley always buys me ice cream when he's around pretty girls. He says I'm his bait," Jared spilled out.

Seeley's eyebrows shot up. "That's not… I mean, I've got a girlfriend… now," Booth stumbled finding it hard to form words, which was odd since he wasn't the nervous kind of guy.

Brennan went unfazed by the comment. She just wanted to get home. She felt more angst-y than hungry even though she had, had a light lunch.

"No thanks Jared," she responded with a slight smile

Jared let go of her in the next moment and focused his attention on Seeley.

"Can I still have ice cream?" Jared pleaded. Booth took advantage of the moment and handed few dollars. He wanted some alone time with Brennan.

"Get me one too," Booth said and Jared took off to catch the ice cream truck.

Booth looked up at Brennan who was checking the time on her phone. She hoped Mr. Johnson's fifteen minutes were exact.

"Do you need a ride home?" Booth offered when the conversation had died between them

She shook her head. Booth waited for her to pick up the conversation after his miserable attempt. She didn't. He scratched his head looking for something to say or do. She wasn't responding to him and he disliked the dead silence between them.

"Do you live close?" he offered

"I live with the Johnsons," she said as she walked to the empty bench he had recently been occupying

Booth felt relieved by the answer. She was talking so he followed her to the bench as she sat down.

"Eric and Mary Johnson? They go to all the games!" he said a bit too enthusiastic. Bones looked at him strangely but didn't comment. He hated the elephant in the room.

"Are you mad at me?" he finally asked

Brennan thought about the question for a bit. "I'm not sure," she replied honestly.

"Is it because of what I did to your friends?" he pursued

She nodded her head. He gulped and sat down next to her. He thought about what to say to her. He wasn't sure why he couldn't bear the thought of her disliking him. Maybe 'cause she wasn't like anyone he had ever met. He ran his hands through his hair before he finally spoke.

"I didn't mean to. I wasn't even really apart of it," he said

Brennan looked up at him with her blue eyes bigger than usual. Doing nothing is just as much a choice as doing something.

She had seen something in him this morning. She had even made a connection with him. A real connection that was so impossibly rare for her that it shook her when it happened. She thought it was because he was genuinely nice but she was wrong. She didn't like being wrong and somehow she felt like she betrayed herself by letting her guard down so easily.

"Did you do anything to stop it?" she asked with one last flare of hope.

He kept her gaze. He couldn't lie to her. "No," he whispered. She got up as soon as he confirmed her suspicions.

"Bones!" he yelled and she didn't turn around. She didn't even want argue the point of that stupid nickname.

"Bones!" he yelled again this time grabbing her hand. She tried to shake him off but it was no use.

"Let me go Seeley. You're just like the rest of them!" she argued

"What do you mean?" he asked feeling hurt by her words.

"You and your friends, all you care about are yourselves! You don't care about anyone else around you. You just poke fun at anyone for being a little bit different," she said feeling out of mind again. She got like this from time to time. She was so rational and sensible every day but when it came to something she was passionate about she became this.

"I didn't actually throw them in that dumpster," he argued

"Well you didn't stop them either," she responded distressed.

Booth stopped on his tracks. He thought he could wash his hands clean because he refused to participate this morning but he was wrong. He had a horrible feeling in the pit of stomach since this morning. He knew he had been wrong and even embarrassed for not saying something to his friends. The reason he had that headache, the reason he wasn't hungry. He felt guilty. He felt stupid. He felt weak.

"You're right," he said finally letting go of her hand.

Brennan looked confused.

"I could have stopped what happened this morning but I didn't. I was weak and stupid. I should have been there for your friends and instead I stood there… embarrassed at myself for being so… small when the time called for me to be more," he stated without taking his eyes off her.

"You should have…" she said

"But I didn't and I can't change the past. I can only promise that I'll be better," he said with pleading eyes.

She looked at him intently. Her instincts were always wrong. Nothing but his last speech conveyed that he wasn't like the rest of them. She just had a feeling, no concrete facts.

"Help me find Jane Simms," she said

"What?" he said not following her train of thought.

"You said that the next time you are called to be more, that you will 'be better'" she said putting air quotes over 'be better'.

"You want to find Jane?" he asked still bewildered.

"The police have stopped actively searching for her. She has no one looking for her," Brennan stated

Booth looked at her disbelieving. "We're kids, we can't do this."

"I haven't been a kid in a long time," She said thinking of the past couple years of her life, "I'm going to find Jane. The only question is who's going to help me?"

Brennan looked determined and although she was younger than him, he didn't doubt her ability. He just doubted his ability.

"What could I do? I'm not as smart as you," he asked her

"You know the town. You know people. You have superior skills of conversation. I could really use you," she said.

Jared came up to him a moment later with two ice cream cones and a face full of vanilla. Mr. Johnson came around the corner at the same time parking next to the ice cream truck. He waved at Booth in recognition as the star quarterback.

Brennan waited for his answer before she took her leave.

"I'm in," he said

**Thanks for reading :) Still trying to find the right balance of plot progression and Bones and booth. **


	6. What you don't know about me

**I'm getting better at weekly updates!**

* * *

The drive back to the Johnson's house was short but Brennan still rolled down the passenger window. She didn't like closed spaces. A mild case of claustrophobia she assessed. She automatically touched her right arm and traced the scar along her forearm. It had progressively faded. Her claustrophobia often reminded her of that night.

She shook off the memory and focused on the present time. There was a time in her life when she felt helpless and alone. Since then, she has trained herself to be stronger.

When she walked into the homey house, it smelled like pot roast and potatoes.

"Mrs. Johnson we're home," Mr. Johnson yelled as he removed his hat. The Johnsons had been married for forty three years, but Eric still liked sound of his wife's second last name.

He was an old man in his late sixties with three grown sons. All three of them had left their home long ago. The youngest being twenty six in medical school across the country. Eric's hair was now completely white and gradually thinning. His back was slightly hunched and his movements were slow, but he kept himself active.

When his wife came to the front of the house, she was wiping her hands on her red apron. She missed having children in the house, so she was smiled widely at Brennan's presence. Brennan was their first foster child.

"Tempy! You're home! Thank the heavens, we were starting to get worried," she said with open arms. The woman was fair skinned lady with curly white hair and red stained cheeks. Her blushes were quite instantaneous. Brennan wasn't a fan of hugs but she didn't mind them from Mary. Mary knowing Temperance's preferences kept the hug quick.

"Sorry, Mrs. Johnson," Brennan replied when Mrs. Johnson let her go. Mrs. Johnson beamed at Temperance. She never had a daughter. She held her hands close to chest as she examine her beautiful and intelligent foster child.

"Well come on you two, dinner is almost ready," she said insinuating for them to follow her.

…

Booth counted his twenty two dollars again before he entered the grocery store. He wanted to make sure he had enough as he pushed the cart through the automatic doors. He then grabbed Jared and quickly placed him in the cart. Jared crossed his arms upset.

"Seeeeeeley, I'm seven now. I'm not a baby!" he exclaimed with little fists.

Booth laughed quietly to himself and lifted Jared out. "Of course you're not, sorry"

Jared looked triumphant as he played airplane around the cart. Booth pulled out his list.

_Milk_

_Eggs_

_Pancake mix_

_Bread_

_Fruit_

He was glad they had meat at home. He didn't have enough for that today. Plus, his dad's check was coming on Friday. They would make it. Seeley smiled at the thought. This was a good month.

He bought everything quickly and headed home in his old blue Camaro. His grandfather, Hank, had kept it in good shape. It had been Seeley's gift for his 16th birthday. Jared was still jumping around when they got to their apartment door. It took some precise jiggling to get the front door open. The manager didn't think it needed repairing.

Once inside, a white smoke encircled the brothers. Seeley's nose twisted at the smell of tobacco. His father was smoking with a few of his poker buddies. Seeley's immediately noticed the empty bottles of beer on the poker table. Alcohol and poker were never a good mix. He gave Jared one of the lighter grocery bags and told him to put it in the kitchen.

"Seeley!" his father roared when he saw him.

Seeley nodded in recognitions and proceeded to open some windows. Nighttime was approaching and sun was starting to set.

"Hey everybody, I believe your wives must be getting worried. It's almost dinner time," Seeley announced.

Two of them looked at their phones and saw missed calls. The last one lazily looked at his watch and yawned.

"One last game boys?" the third one said as he dealt the cards.

"Is Jared here?" his father asked.

Seeley nodded as he carried the gallon of milk and bags of fruit toward the kitchen.

"Bring him here, he's my lucky charm," his father said with a cheeky grin.

Seeley shook his head and replied, "Just finish your game, pop."

Seeley unloaded the bags as Jared but the loaf of bread on the counter. Jared turned around with a smile displaying the prominent bruise on his left cheek. His father wasn't going anywhere near Jared…not a chance in hell.

…

Chase moved his food absentmindedly on his plate. He wasn't hungry. The sound his fork made on the plate agitated his mother.

"What's wrong?" his beautiful mother asked

"Nothing, I'm just not hungry," he replied coolly. He was still reeling in from the scare this afternoon. He kept his ears ready for the phone to ring.

His father walked in a moment later from a long day at work and kissed his wife instinctively. As he always did.

"The food looks good Margaret," he said

Mrs. Simms nodded. She hadn't made the meal but Mr. Simms always said that. It was routine.

Mr. Simms quickly dove into his ready meal. The whole room was quiet for some time. Chase looked to the empty seat across the table, his sister's seat. He missed her and wanted her to come home already.

Mom would usually be arguing with her right now and then Dad would have to swoop in to save her. Jane was a daddy's girl through and through. This quietness was uncomfortable.

His dad looked up to him without his notice. Mr. Simms coughed to get his son's attention.

"How's the team looking?" he asked once his famish hunger subsided. It was a busy day at work.

Chase smiled, "Good sir. I'm thinking state champs this year."

His dad winked at him.

"And what about Angel? How she doing?" Mr. Simms asked.

His mother scoffed. "It's Angela dad. She's good. We're doing well," Chase answered.

"She's an odd girl Chase. I don't agree with you dating her," his mother reminded him. Angela and he had been going out for a month now. His mother was adamant on not keeping her serious.

"Part of her charm," he replied with a mischievous smile

His mother gave him a warning look and he looked down in response. His father may be the mayor of the town but he wasn't the enforcing power in the house.

Mrs. Simms was the daughter of oil tycoon, Marvin Mayhouse. Most of the family's fortune was left to her older brother Marvin Junior but a large sum was still given to her as an inheritance. She was the reason, they could a afford cooks, the mansion, the two housekeepers and three gardeners.

Mrs. Simms twirled her pearls in her hands. "Understand your place in this world Chase. You're a Mayhouse and that can get you many places if you play your cards right."

Chase shrunk.

The rest of the dinner went on in silence. There was no mention of Jane. There was never any mention of Jane. Mrs. Simms was certain it was just another one of her mindless cries for unnecessary attention. Mr. Simms was too worried and couldn't think about her for long periods of time. Chase didn't want upset either of them.

**The next day…**

Brennan waved bye to Mr. Johnson when he dropped her off. She had woken up too late for frog hunting so she put on her favorite shorts and simple gray tank top and ditched the rubber boots. The summer was still dissipating into autumn.

In addition, her goals for this semester had changed so the frogs would have to wait. She had an empty jar and a couple of books with her. She told Mr. Johnson the jar was for a project she was working on.

She quickly made her way through the crowded halls to Jake's custodian room where she had left her bucket. Jake saw her and smiled.

"Ey Temperance, you's wants your bucket?"

She nodded and had him pour the content into the jar. When he came down to the crime scene she had asked him to save the swamp sediment in her bucket. He obliged without much question.

Once she collected sample, she gleamed and headed down to her locker.

Yet, before she was able to open her locker someone bumped into her. She let the books fall but caught the jar before it hit the ground.

"O gosh, sorry I'm a klutz" he said picking her books off the floor. Brennan blew out a breath of relief. The sediment was important and valuable.

She aligned herself upright and grabbed the books from his hands.

"You're welcome?" he dared

Brennan looked at him with another challenge. "You're the one who hurled into me? Why should I thank you?" she asked

"I picked up the books," he answered not backing down

"Only after you dropped them"

"And I apologized…"he said finally getting a good look at her. She had to be the prettiest girl at school hands down. He stretched out his hand, "Let's start over. I'm Sully short for Sullivan."

Brennan thought about his offer for a moment, and then spotted Booth across the hall headed her way. She smiled unconsciously.

"This is the part where you say your name…" Sully encouraged

"Temperance," she said taking his hand.

"Hey Bones!" Booth interrupted. He was bit taller than Sully so he could her see from behind.

"Booth, look what I have," she gleamed while removing her hand from Sully and showing Booth the swamp sediment. He smiled at her enthusiasm.

"What's that for?" Booth asked

"You two know each other?" Sully asked quickly. Sully was Cam's old flame. They ended on mutual terms and as a result he had stayed in good terms with Booth.

Booth looked down as if finally acknowledging his presence.

"Oh hey Sully, what's up?" Booth said

"Nothing much, I was just meeting… bones?"

"It's Temperance," Booth and Brennan replied in unison.

"O sorry," he smiled awkwardly feeling entirely out of place.

"He bumped into me and nearly killed these little critters. They're going to help us crack the mystery," Brennan commented as she knocked on her jar.

Booth tapped Sully's back and said, "Be careful Sully, Bones is working on something big."

Sully looked back at the star quarterback then at Brennan who was still goggling at her jar.

"What is she working on?" he asked intrusively.

Brennan started to open her locker and ignore him. She didn't believe he was talking to her. He didn't say 'what are you working on?'

Booth smiled, like he had a secret, as Sully looked at the back of her head.

"She wants to find Jane," Booth answered

"With swamp goop?" he asked incredulously. Booth laughed quietly.

Bones rolled her eyes. "It's not goop," she said closing her locker and walking toward her first class.

"See you later, Sully," Booth called as he caught up with Brennan. They shared the first class.

Sully stood there stupefied. Temperance not Bones. He had to remember that.

…

"So what does the jar for?" Booth asked once they were alone

"Do you know what blow flies are?" she asked ignoring his question

Booth shrugs

"They're lucky insects at the scene of crime," she said pulling out two dead flies from her right pocket and placing them in the jar full of fly larvae.

Booth shook his head. "You're a bit unusual Bones."

"Yes I am," she said with a slight smile. He had to have noticed by now.

"So blow flies?" he pursued

"Yes blow flies, I collected some of them that surrounded the body before officer Saroyan came. Jake kept them for me."

"Jake?"

"The custodian, remember?"

"Is that legal? Wasn't it part of the crime scene?" he suggested

"I only collected a few samples and mostly from the peripheral. Besides the interns weren't keen on collecting the samples. I recall them trying to clean the body from the samples," she said as Booth opened the class door for her.

"Okay, so how are the bugs going to help us find Jane?" he asked following her inside

"Well…. I didn't know the body wasn't hers until after the interns came. The insects could have helped told us time of death. But I have a…. got feeling that the corpse is somehow involved" she explained as she found her assigned seat.

"Gut," he corrected with a smile.

"What?"

"You said got feeling, I think you meant gut feeling,"

"Ah, the saying still puzzles me… but did you recognize the implication?" she asked

"I agree. So we're taking on two mysteries?" he asked

"Yes, I don't usually go with my… GUT feeling but… in recognition of the probability of having two high scale cases happen in such a… quiet town, well Zach and I did the math last night. We took in all the entities and probabilities that revolve around the two cases. There is a 1 in 700,000 chance that crimes are unrelated."

"Who's Zach?" Booth asked ignoring everything else. The math didn't matter to him, he instincts were just keen on the possibility. Zach approached them, moments later.

"Hello Temperance… Seeley," he greeted

"This is Zach, he's a genius," Brennan added matter-of-factly

"He's helping?" Booth asked

Zach took a look at the insects. "Are these the Calliphoridae?" he asked

"Blow flies," Booth corrected

"That's what he said," Temperance said with a one sided grin

"You want Hodgins to take a look at them?" Zach asked

"He said he would. He was very adamant on proving a conspiracy involving the Mayor," Brennan shrugged

"Do we have anything else we can look at?" Zach asked and the first warning bell rang. They had ten minutes left before class started.

Bones looked at Booth expectedly.

"Well…" Booth asked scratching his head, "We could ask Andrea some questions?"

"Andrea Sanchez?" Zach questioned. He really didn't like Booth and when Brennan called last night to inform him about Booth's help he frowned. Zach was sure they wouldn't need him.

"She was Jane's only friend. They took her into questioning at the beginning of the search," Booth replied

"How can we get a hold of Andrea?" Brennan asked

"She's the coach's daughter. We can question her after my practice, she'll be the one pouting in all black," Booth answered.

…

Zach quickly paid for his lunch and looked up to find his group of friends. As usual they were in the far left corner of the cafeteria. He smiled when he saw Jack and Temperance.

"Did you show Hodgins the live specimens?" Zach asked as he approached them.

Brennan, in mid chew, grabbed her backpack. "I almost forgot?!" she exclaimed taking out her jar of larvae.

Jack looked surprised as Brennan placed it in front of him.

"You brought it to lunch?" Jack asked in shock

"Yeah, I've carrying them around all day," Brennan replied while she looked for the book Jack requested.

"Temperance put that away?!" Jack said in loud whisper. Jack scanned the cafeteria and quickly spotted HER. She was smiling at him. He frowned as he grabbed the jar and snuck it under the table. He didn't want Angela thinking he was a freak. Everyone in school already thought that. She was new to school. He still had a chance.

"Jack what are you doing?" Temperance asked with a smile. She handed him the requested Entomology book: _The growth cycles of Insects. _

"I'll look at it after school, not now…" Jack replied

"Why?" Temperance questioned. As far she could recall he loved bugs and anything to do with them. He was quite the show-off at summer camp.

Jack gulped and swiftly lied, "I'm eating, and I might get nauseous."

Zach stared Jack down. That wasn't the real reason. He didn't say anything. In Zach's opinion, Jack could be completely unreasonable at times. Yet, he couldn't do anything about Jack's reaction, Jack was stubborn to a fault.

Brennan placed the jar back in her back pack.

"Do we really need Seeley Booth?" Zach asked as he began eating.

"Yes," Temperance replied. They had this exact conversation last night over the phone.

"Why?"

"He's… charismatic, intuitive and he knows Jane better than all of us." Brennan explained reasonably

Jack looked at her with curiosity. "You trust him after one day?… I don't think it's wise. Trust nothing you hear and only half of what you see. I don't like this arrangement."

"I don't like Seeley Booth, period," Zach added

Temperance rolled her eyes. "I'm not asking you to be friends with him. I know he hasn't been entirely fair to either of you. I'm only asking that we all put aside our differences for the greater good. I'm just asking you to help me find Jane."

Temperance looked across the room and found Seeley with Rebecca. Both boys followed her stare. Seeley was laughing carefree with an enormous crowd around him.

"As long as we don't have to like him," Zach replied

"Ditto," Jack added with a pang in his chest. Angela was sitting next to Booth with Chase's arm around her shoulders.

…

After calculus class, Brennan had physical education. It was her last class of the day. She wasn't fond of it but she was average. They were timing her 100 meter dash and her 200 meter dash today. She was supposed improve by the end of the semester. She ran the 100 meter dash as quickly as her feet could take her.

By the time, she reached her goal she was breathing hard. She lifted her arms behind her head like her biological dad told her to do when she trouble breathing. She had no trouble remembering him. She just had no idea what had happened to him or her mother or her brother.

Next were the boys. Everyone was being timed today. She walked a bit farther so that finish line was clear. She was still catching her breath.

"Hey Temperance," someone said a bit out of breath. She wondered who it was. None of the squints were in this class. She turned around. It was Sully.

"Hey Sully," she said a little less out of breath.

"Sorry about this morning," he told her

"It's fine, no harm done," she told him

"So you're trying to find Jane, huh?" he said trying to make small talk. Something Temperance hardly enjoyed.

"Yes I am. I have to go run the two hundred meter dash," she told him when the Women's PE teacher called her away.

"O okay, maybe we could talk later…. Or something," he answered

Brennan took off without another word.

…

Jack, Temperance and Zach were all crowded around the jar on the bleachers. Temperance was holding out a book of pictures for Jack to reference. Zach was holding out the dead fly as Jack examined it with his magnifying glass.

"Let me see the first one again," Jack requested so Zach pulled it out.

"The first one is older, calculating the hot weather and the increase in the growth cycle with the size of the maggots. The corpse had to be at least three weeks old," Jack commented after an hour of examination and calculations.

Temperance scrunched her face. She was hoping for two weeks old. 1 in 700, 000 was looking more and more likely.

Angela came to join them after the revelation.

"Hey you guys, whatcha' doing out here?" she asked politely. Rebecca and Jake were the only other spectators on the bleachers and Rebecca wasn't very fond of Angela.

"Looking at swamp specimens," Temperance replied as Angela took a seat next to her. Angela pulled out her drawing notebook to pass the time. Chase and she had a date this afternoon.

Jack kept his head down, too nervous to look her in the eye.

"Why?" Angela asked only half interested. Bugs were not her thing.

"I'm trying to find Jane Simms, did you know her?" Temperance asked

"Chase's sister? Yeah, she's the one who introduced me to Chase," Angela said a bit sad.

Temperance looked at a puzzled Zach who looked at a star struck Jack. So maybe conversing really wasn't their thing. Maybe they really did need Seeley Booth.

"Well… what did… you know about Jane?" Zach asked slowly.

Angela began to flip through her sketches as she thought about Jane. Temperance immediately noticed her attention to detail in all of her sketches. She had a spatial intelligence that allowed her reproduce pictures miraculously.

"Well she was an artist, like me. We meet at an art gallery this summer," Angela replied drawing what seemed to be a face.

"You're a wonderful artist, Angela," Temperance commented

"Thanks Temperance," she replied with a warm smile.

The whistle ending practice rung and they looked up.

"That's Andrea," Zach commented pointing at the bored goth teenager at the edge of the bleachers.

Temperance got up and waved Booth down. He came quickly.

"Hey Angela," Booth said as he came. She waved high with wide smile. She liked Booth.

"She here?" Booth asked. Temperance nodded and pointed to the far corner of the bleachers.

"Wait here," he said

"No way, we are in this together" She argued

Booth assessed the situation for second. Bones could be quite abrasive with people. He wasn't sure.

"Fine, but the rest of the squints stay," he directed

Bones looked at him flustered. "Don't call them squints."

…

Andrea looked bored as the two approached her. She didn't bother taking out her ear buds.

"Andrea?" Booth asked with a wave.

She rolled her eyes and took out the ear buds.

"What do you want?" she asked a bit brusquely

"Did you know Jane Simms?" Brennan asked abruptly.

"Yeah," she said ready to walk away.

"Wait we just to ask you some questions about her," Booth said

"Fuck off, both of you," she said pointing a middle finger at them and deserting them.

"Well that was a bust," Booth commented

"You're not going to get anything out of her," Angela commented from bleachers

"What do you mean?" Brennan asked

Angela came closer to them and led them away from any crowds at the side of the bleachers.

"Jane and Andrea… they were a couple," she whispered once they were away from the crowd.

"What? Jane wasn't gay" Booth commented. He had known her almost all his life.

"A lesbian in a small town prominent Catholic family, yes of course she wasn't overtly gay," Angela explained

"Are you sure?" Brennan asked

"Yup, she was hitting on me the day we met. I worked at that gallery and she came to visit me almost every day"

"Why didn't you tell her you weren't interested," Booth asked

Angela smiled. "Who said I wasn't interested? There's a lot you don't know about me Booth."

Brennan smiled. "And why won't Andrea talk to us?"

"They had a bad breakup. Very bad, one day Jane just told Andrea that she was no longer interested. Andrea was distraught, they had talked about running away together after high school" Angela replied. She spotted Chase from behind Booth.

"How do know all this?" Booth asked

"Jane wasn't a quite girl Booth. She just needed someone to actually listen," Angela replied before she waved bye to meet Chase.

"We can talk later, okay?" she said before she met up with Chase.

* * *

**GyMusicaddict, dandapanda, and daisesndaffidols thank you for reviewing the last chapter :) You guys made my day **


	7. Kid Code

"Are you coming Temperance?" Zach asked as he and Zach descended the bleachers.

"Where are you going?" Brennan asked from the bottom of the bleachers. Booth had just left to take a quick shower.

"The pizza parlor, it's kind of our place to hang out," Zach explained

"And by OUR place he means the squints," Jack added

Brennan thought about it for a moment. There wasn't anything on her agenda. She had one lead but Angela was busy at the moment.

"Sure, does anyone have a car?" Brennan asked.

Jack pulled out his keys and jiggled them in the air.

…

Brennan sat in the front seat of the sleek silver BMW. The car seemed new and well-kept. Brennan asked him if it was his parents' car. Jack muttered something unintelligible.

"His family is grossly rich," Zach said from the back seat.

Brennan didn't mention anything else. She wasn't interested in Jack's wealth and Jack wasn't offering any more details.

When they got to the pizza parlor, there was a group of boys talking loudly in the corner. Brennan recognized them from lunch, though she hadn't been properly introduced. They were all sitting in a booth chatting animatedly but they quieted down when she approached.

Jack introduced them from left to right.

"Guys this is Temperance. Temperance this is Colin, Wendell, and Finn," Jack said as he pointed at each one individually.

Brennan waved back.

"Didn't it hurt?" Colin asked while he wagged his eyebrows. Colin was tall and very slender with the slightest beard growing below on chin.

"What do you mean?" Brennan asked completely confused. She hadn't been injured recently. She covered her scar habitually.

"Please don't finish that line Colin," Wendell responded with an exasperated tone. Wendell was a small blonde boy with a clean haircut.

"When you fell from heaven 'cause you look like an angel," Colin finished. Wendell rolled his eyes.

"I don't understand?" Brennan replied looking at Zach for an explanation.

Finn chuckled. "He means you're prettier than Southern belle on her wedding day," Finn replied with a thick southern drawl. His backward cap and his long hair were his key features.

Brennan stood silent not knowing how to react.

"Ignore them please, I always do," Zach said as he sat next to Colin.

"I'm going to get us another pitcher of coke," Jack added.

Brennan decided to sit next to Finn since there wasn't any room by Zach.

"So what brings you to this neck of the woods?" Finn asked as took a bite of his pizza.

"What do you mean?" Brennan replied as she tucked her hair back.

"Say what you actually mean Finn. Brennan is not… familiar with… certain expressions," Zach replied as he took a slice of pizza for himself.

"So what we got ourselves a female Zach?" Colin replied still ogling at Temperance.

Jack came back with extra cups and a full pitcher.

"Here we go, Temperance did you want something?" Jack asked politely as he grabbed a chair from a nearby table.

Temperance shook her head. "So are all of you… squints?" she asked searching for the right words.

"Bad word Temperance. We prefer… geniuses," Colin replied disdainful wave of his hands.

Wendell rolled his eyes again. "I only wish I had an excuse for him. Unfortunately this is Colin twenty-four seven," Wendell added

"Geniuses, huh?" Brennan said as she poured herself some coke.

"Except in the matters of the heart… 'cause in love I'm but a fool," Colin replied with intent eyes.

Finn laughed wholeheartedly. "O Colin, you're so full of it," Finn commented

"Full of what?" Brennan asked

"Just ignore them, Brennan. Like I said I always do," Zach replied as he another bite of his pizza.

Suddenly, Jack was spitting out his coke.

"Hodgins!" Zach yelled with a face full of coke. Colin and Zach got the worst of it.

Wendell smiled at the scene. "Jack's dream girl just walked in," Wendell said with a smile

"Shut it, Wendy!" Jack said as handed the Zach and Colin some napkins.

"Stop calling me Wendy!" Wendell said as he started to get red.

"Then don't talk about his girl," Finn commented

"Angela is not his girl. Chase is her boyfriend," Zach said matter-of-factly.

"Not in that sense Zach. Everybody knows Jack's got a thing for the new girl," Finn replied with a barely there grin.

…

"Do you really have to invite them? Can't it just be the two of us?" Angela pleaded with Chase as they approached the cash register.

"Angela, Seeley's my best friend," Chase explained with his arm possessively wrapped around her shoulders. He had caught some admirers from a distance.

"Then can't it just be him. Does Rebecca have to come?" Angela almost whined.

"I know you two don't get along but we are going to the homecoming dance together, you two should at least try to get along," Chase explained as he examined the food options.

"Nuh-uh, I can get along with anybody. It's her who has a stick so far up her ass," Angela replied with a dramatic eye roll.

Chase laughed. Rebecca was a hard person to get along with. "Well… I already invited Seeley and I can't tell him not come. Plus Jared is coming."

"He is! Aw he so adorable!" Angela replied with a newfound happiness. She didn't notice the boys with Brennan. She was too caught up in Chase's arms. When Angela fell for someone it was always all or nothing. Like a true artist, her feelings dictated her life.

…

"I don't mind once in while Booth but I can't babysit every day. It gets exhausting," Rebecca said when Booth parked his car by the curb.

"We'll talk about this some other time Rebecca. He's still in the car," Booth whispered as he turned the key.

"Seeley, are we getting pizza?" Jared asked excitedly as he looked out the window. Booth always tried to cook for them, when he could. It saved them money. However, Chase had invited them to eat and he wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Yup, and guess who's going to be there?" Booth asked in a sweet voice. He hoped Jared hadn't been paying too much attention to Rebecca.

"Who?!" Jared replied with hopeful eyes.

"Angela!"

"Yeah!" Jared yelled before he commented, " I saw her during practice, but Becky said I couldn't talk to her because she was a weirdo."

Booth glared at Rebecca. Rebecca shrugged and replied, "The girl's a freak."

"Seriously?" Booth asked incredulously.

"What? Who the fuck calls themselves a 'free-spirit' and walks around school free-boobing it. That's not a 'free-spirit' that's called skank," Rebecca replied as she checked her make-up in the passenger mirror.

"Rebecca seriously, not in front of my brother," Booth said with a stern voice. These were the times he really questioned why he was dating Rebecca. In some aspects, it was inevitable.

They were the sweetheart couple of the town. Chase being the frequent bachelor amongst the two boys. The three had all grown up together and as long as Booth could remember he had been with Rebecca. They shared their first kiss at age five and had their first real kiss during freshman year. Rebecca's parents loved him. There was no question whether their daughter would ever find a man to spend her life with.

Rebecca pouted and slammed the door on her way out. Booth looked back at his brother who was frowning.

"Becky's just in mood today. Don't pay any attention to her, okay?" Booth said to his brother in the back seat.

"I don't like how she talks about Angie," Jared said as he twiddled his thumbs.

"Me too but it's very important that you don't repeat anything she says. Especially the bad words," Booth said. Jared nodded.

…

"So how are you liking the small town of Jefferson?" Finn asked Brennan.

"It's okay. It gets pretty hot during the summer," Brennan replied. She took a sip of her coke and looked up. She immediately saw Seeley and smiled unconsciously.

Finn turned around to follow the smile since everyone else was lost in their own conversations.

"You got crush on Seeley?" he asked mischievously but in a whisper.

Brennan shook her head. "No, I just like him."

"Lady Zach, that's what a crush is," Finn joked

"No, I know the meaning of a crush. I don't have one on Seeley. I just like him… like I like my foster parents. They're nice… he's nice," Brennan replied with a small smile.

Finn chuckled at her response. "Well be careful. The girl on his right is as vicious as a disturbed hibernating bear."

"A hibernating bear is in a state of near comatose. His reactions couldn't be much of a threat in his wake, " Brennan replied

Finn smiled widely. "Point made… just picture her as a starved dog and any girl looking at Seeley… having sausage links wrapped around her body."

Brennan laughed quietly at the comparison. She was quiet positive Finn's comment was a hyperbole.

…

"Here she comes," Angela warned since Chase wasn't facing the front door.

He turned around and smiled at his life-long friends.

"Booth, Becky!" he yelled

Booth followed the sound of his voice. He hadn't spotted the squints in the far corner.

Rebecca slid into the booth first.

"This place is kind of a dump Chase," Rebecca commented as she cautiously touched the dingy tables.

"Angela says the pizza here is amazing," Chase commented

"They get all of their ingredients from local farms. Trust me it makes all the difference, " Angela added

"Right… you're into that organic stuff. If you ask me pizza is pizza, " Rebecca replied in a condescending tone.

"Angie!" Jared yelled as slipped in next to her to give her a big hug.

"Hey Angela, you know I've lived here my entire life and I have never stopped in here to eat," Booth commented with a smile

"Honey, that means you care about health codes," Rebecca commented. Booth gave her another glare

"Becky, if I didn't know better I'd think Aunt flow was paying you visit today," Chase remarked with a lethal tone.

"Kiss my ass Chase," Rebecca replied with a shock look to her face

"You wish, Becky," Chase replied with a smirk.

"Rebecca, seriously my little brother," Booth added

Rebecca tried to relax but something was bugging her that day and it had nothing to do with Angela's presence. She looked at her phone and texted Cam to come pick her up. She didn't feel like being next to Booth or Chase at the moment. Even worse, Angela was right in front of her.

"Order number 32!" the man at the register yelled. Angela got up to retrieve it. Anything to get away from the tension.

…

Bones looked at Angela as she slowly approached the cash register.

"Hey, I'm going to talk to Angela for a second," She told guys as she got up from the booth. Some of them looked at her strangely. Jack intruded to explain as Bones walked up to Angela.

"Hey Angela," she said following social protocol. Angela turned around welcoming her presence.

"Hey Temperance, what are you doing here?" Angela asked but then she saw the squint gang behind her, "You're here with friends."

"Yes, this is Jack's favorite place to eat. He calls himself the king of the lab. I think that means they have to do what he tells them," Bones said with no inflections. She was following the social convention of small talk.

Angela smiled widely. She knew Brennan wasn't trying to tease Jack by announcing the strange fact.

"So I was wondering, if we could talk later on today? For Jane," Brennan asked

Angela grabbed the pizza. "Well I have a dance class in an hour. After I ate, I was going to walk the two blocks to get there. Chase has other plans. You could ask me then?" Angela offered.

"Sounds good," Brennan said and she left without another word. Angela deemed Brennan as strange but she liked different. It was refreshing to her.

…

Angela headed back to the table. Booth and Chase were talking about sports while Rebecca looked bored. Jared sat by Booth playing with a toy car.

"Pizza is here!" Angela announced as she as she laid down the pizza.

The boys attacked the pizza. Even Jared was quite famished.

"So I spoke to Temperance and she thinks…" Angela started but Booth quickly gave her a look and shook his head.

"Temperance?" Chase asked

"The new girl?" Rebecca continued with a newfound interest.

"We're working on a project for class," Booth commented

"We don't have anything due for biology," Chase added

Angela tried to keep up. Booth was stumped. "It's a creative project for my class. Temperance and I have to shoot a video and we asked Booth to help," Angela interrupted

Booth nodded.

"She wasn't very nice when we spoke to her by the lake," Rebecca commented

"Not many people can be nice with you around Beckie," Chase added

"Shut up, Chase!" she yelled. Booth rolled his eyes. Cam came in seconds later.

"Hey you guys!" Cam exclaimed

"Thanks goodness, I'll see you guys later!" Rebecca said she stepped out her seat.

"Where are you going?" Booth asked

"Cam and I are just going to her house. We're just going to watch movies or something," Rebecca responded with a lack of interest.

Booth ran his right through his hair. "Fine, I'll see you tomorrow. I'll try to get to school early we need to talk."

Rebecca nodded and left. Cam stood there stunned for a moment. "Um, I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" Cam announced rhetorically and walked out of the Pizza place.

"So what's really going on?" Chase asked

"What do you mean?" Booth asked

"You cheating on Beckie?"

Angela and Booth shared an unspoken conversation.

"No, we really have an art project. I'm going to get some parmesan cheese," Booth announced

Angela waited a few seconds before she excused herself to the ladies room.

…

"Booth what's going?" Angela whispered to him as she walked toward him.

"Nothing, I just don't want Chase to know what I'm doing. He doesn't like to talk about Jane. If I have actual evidence or something then I'll tell him. For now, keep it between us."

Angela nodded. "Well Temperance wants to ask me some questions before I head down to dance class."

Booth grabbed the canister of cheese. "I'll drive you. Bones can be a bit… blunt."

Angela nodded and left for the bathroom. Booth headed back to the table and caught a glimpse of Brennan. He smiled and went to sit back down. She didn't catch him looking at her, but that wasn't the point. She was there. She was smiling and happy. She was talking unreservedly with friends. That was all it took for Booth to smile.

The rest of the meal went by less eventful. Chase had to meet his Mother for a fitting at six so he left early. Angela told him Booth was taking him to dance class. Chase thought nothing of it. Booth was a good friend. In many ways Booth was much a better friend than he would ever be.

…

When it was time to leave, Angela went to retrieve Bones from the squints.

"Hey Temperance, I'm leaving now. Booth is going to drive me," she told her before she smiled at the rest of the crowd, "Hey everybody I'm Angela."

Angela giggled when they responded in unison. "Hey Angela!"

"Okay," Brennan said to Angela the turned to the boys, "I'll see you all tomorrow for lunch."

…

Jared insisted that Angela sit with him so Brennan took the front seat.

It was about a minute into the car ride when Angela noticed the tension between the two. It wasn't anything blinding, but anybody paying attention could have picked up on it. Angela smiled at the sight. She didn't know Temperance very well but she had to better than Rebecca. Anybody was better than Rebecca.

She watched in amusement as Booth came to a stoplight and restlessly massaged the steering wheel. He took a very inconspicuous peek toward Temperance as she restlessly drummed her fingers on car door. She picked up her hand to tuck her hair behind her ear and he quickly turned away.

_She didn't catch you looking at her Booth. She's just nervous _Angela thought to herself

"Can I open the window?" Brennan asked and Booth jumped a bit at the sound of her voice.

_A lil' jumpy? Eh, Booth? _Angela continued in her head

"Is it stuffy?" Booth asked as the car behind him honked. He thought it was just him.

"Green light, Seeley!" Jared yelled

Booth hit the gas hard and the motion surprised everyone.

"I just need the air," Brennan answered after the initial surprise.

"Go head," he said not daring to look at her. Brennan rolled down the window slowly letting the air relieve her tension. _Claustrophobia _she told herself.

_It's getting hot in here… So Booth take off your clothes… _Angela sang in her head.

"Angie, why you are smiling so much?" Jared asked with a small laugh

Angela turned to look at him. "I'm just happy, sometimes the world swings good karma."

"So Angela, did Jane go to these dances classes too?" Brennan asked

Angela laughed. "No, Jane wasn't a tango mambo kinda gal. She was a serious kinda artist, she had deep emotions about everything. Turn right here, the dance studio should be on your left."

"Could we come down with you?" Brennan asked as Booth stopped in front the small studio, "This ride was way too short."

Angela smiled widely. "Alejandro would love it!" Angela squealed as she got out the car. Jared quickly took off his seat belt and followed her out.

"Jared, wait!" Booth said but it was too late.

"Coming Booth?" Brennan asked

"I think she'll be too busy dancing. I don't think it's a good idea," Booth stated seriously.

"Well, we don't have any leads and what if every minute counts?" she told him

"Seeeeeley! Come on!" Jared yelled from the door of the building.

"Okay, for Jane," he said

…

"Angela, beautiful as always, and you bring guests! 'ello every one I'm Alejandro! Dance instructor extraordinaire!" a man in tight clothes announced as they stepped into classroom.

Angela kissed him on both cheeks. "Alejandro, these are my friends Jared, Seeley and Temperance. Can they here and watch?" she asked with a smiled

"Watch? O no Senorita! They dance or they leave, first lesson is free!" he exclaimed with a two claps.

"See bones, we'll just ask her questions tomorrow," Booth said and opened the front door.

"Booth, the first lesson is free. I think we should do it," Bones responded

"You want to dance?" Booth asked completely surprised. He didn't think Bones was the type.

"Well I don't typically enjoy the activity but I'm always willing to learn," She said before she turned her attention to the flamboyant Alejandro, "I'll take a free dance class."

"Me too!" Jared announced

"Seeley? You're the last one left," Angela announced. He took a deep breath and looked at his excited brother.

"Fine, but I'm not wearing tights," he announced

…

Booth came out of the dressing room pulling on his tights.

"Why do I have to wear these again?" he asked bones who still had on shorts.

"You heard Alejandro. Jeans are constricting and they won't let you perform at your best," she said stifling a laugh. Booth looked incredibly uncomfortable.

"Laugh now but when I get testicular cancer from wearing someone's used tights we'll see who's laughing then. These things ride up too much for my liking," he argued

"Cancer is not contagious Booth. It's more likely would get a Staph infection or something of that nature," she said as she walked up to the group of dance students.

" Wo, Wo what is a staph infection. Could I die?" he asked as Alejandro quieted the class.

"Class, we have three new additions to our class. Jared, Seeley and Temperance, make them feel at home please," he announced to the small crowd. Most of the students were elderly people or younger than thirteen. Angela's partner was the only other person their age.

"Stacy, Mija, you partner up with Jared," he announced, "Seeley and Temperance you together."

A thin blonde girl in a high pony tail walked up to Jared. She was slightly taller than him.

Seeley looked at Temperance with a small smile. He wasn't a good dancer. Rebecca hated him during dances when he would only dance to slow songs. _Jane… Jane … Jane _he chanted in his head. He really didn't want to look like a fool.

"Step up to your partners people. Today we learn the tango," Alejandor announced with raised hands. He clicked on the music.

Seeley looked at Bones and gulped. _I can do this… I can do this…_

"Start slowly with your hands joined. Men hold the lady by the waist," Alejandro announced weaving through the students. Bones quickly grabbed his hand and it took Booth by surprise.

"Pss, Seeley like this," Jared whispered to him. Jared already had his partner by the waist.

Seeley glared at Jared. "I know, " Seeley whispered back and tentatively wrapped his had around her waist. His touch treating her like she was made of glass and would break if he was too rough.

"Women, place your free hand on his shoulder and align your arm over his," Alejandro said. Some of the more experienced students started to move. Booth and Brennan were still standing. Bones did as she was told. If dance were a series of precise moves, she would like it better. She didn't like surprises. She enjoyed order.

"Good people, good. Now let the music take you. Dance! Dance people. The moves will come in time," Alejandro announced before he locked onto Brennan and Booth, "You two look stiff and too far part. Closer! Closer!"

Bones took a step closer but she was starting to feel odd. Dancing probably made her feel nervous. She liked to do everything well. She didn't like being bad at things.

"What she's not going to bite Seeley. Closer please!" Alejandro exclaimed. So Booth inched closer. Alejandro threw his hands in the air and left the room for a moment.

Angela came gliding their way with her expert partner. She was twirled out to them.

"You guys okay?" she asked with a smile. The tension between them was promising. She could totally see them on Double dates.

"Dancing is still new to us," Bones explained. Booth nodded still awkwardly holding her waist. Alejandro came back into the room with a piece of paper, so Angela danced off.

"I am going to put this paper in the middle of you two. If this paper falls… I will… keep your pants Seeley," Alejandro exclaimed.

Booth's eyes bulged. "I don't want to walk out in these!" he said pointing at his tights.

"Well then, make sure the paper does not fall…" Alejandro said. He placed the paper between them and pushed them together.

Bones and Booth were now pressed up to each other. Their faces inches apart. Booth looked down but noticed only her lips so he looked up to her eyes again. Her big blue eyes, it didn't make the situation any better.

"Don't be nervous Booth. I won't let the paper fall. You'll get your jeans back," Bones whispered. _Yea that's the part that's making nervous _Booth joked in his head.

"Now dance!" Alejandro said.

They both looked at Angela who was being twirled and lifted. _Pft! Not even in dreams! _Booth said in his head. He could never be as good as a dancer. Then they looked at Jared who was swaying to the music with his partner.

"Let's copy the little ones?" Booth suggested. Bones nodded. Alejandro shook his head but felt them alone.

"So why do think Jane didn't run away?" Booth asked once Alejandro left. Bones was moving backward during the dance. She didn't like the disadvantage so she constantly checked the mirror for anything she could possibly bump into.

Booth held her a bit tighter and whispered in her ear, "I've got you. You don't have to keep looking in the mirror."

She gulped. "I think Jane was a lot like me," she said, "You could see it in her eyes. A certain intelligence that comes with experience, she wouldn't run away from a problem."

"Another gut feeling?" Booth presumed as music stopped and slow pace started. Booth eyes widened as he saw the dance form transform.

"That's it Marco, feel Angela. Her essence, her soul, this is tango," Alejandro commented as Angela's partner slide his right hand down her chest and between her breasts.

"No, not a gut feeling. This I know… if Jane did runaway. Then it had to be something bigger than a bad break-up or a fight with her parents."

"All this from a picture?" booth asked

Bones nodded. "Do you know anyone else with information?"

"Well, I don't want to tell Chase yet. Not until we have something to offer, so I'm stumped," Booth responded looking away from Angela and her handsy partner. He couldn't do that to Bones.

"If only we had access to the police records," Bones said

"Well…. My friend Cam works for her dad during the weekends. She has some access," he said as another ostentatious couple passed them. They were elder couple that put their swaying to shame.

"Do you think she'd let us take us take a peek?" she asked as they passed Alejandro.

….

**Horrible ending I know but the chapter is very long already and I haven't posted in awhile. Sorry! I had some trouble writing this chapter. Not much plot progression, more of relationship progression... Finn, Wendell and Colin are the interns. They're recurring characters not main characters if the names dont sound familiar to you. **


	8. Positive signs

**This is the second update this week. Making up for the hiatus. **

"Do you think she'd let us take us take a peek?" she asked as they passed Alejandro.

"I'll ask her tomorrow," Booth replied silently. He knew Cam wouldn't like the idea. It was against protocol to look at the files. Cam was a 'by the book' kind of gal. In lot of ways, Cam and Booth reacted similarly to the same situations. They clearly defined the difference between right and wrong. This was black and that was white. The world was simple when no gray areas existed. So they both tried to do good and be decent people, but sometimes it was just easier to watch bad things happen.

It had always been quite simple for Booth. Black and white. He looked directly into Bones' eyes. They were so blue that he swore he had never seen the shade before. It was a blue that was entirely hers. He thought she would shy away from his stare but she stared right back. Any other girl would have looked away.

Booth had known Bones for two days and he was already seeing gray. He knew without a doubt that he would ask Cam for permission to look into the classified files. Though he was aware it was wrong. He knew that he liked Bones more than should. He was with Rebecca and it was wrong to like Bones the way he liked her. He knew he should have been home, looking out for his father or doing homework. Instead he was here, taking a dance class with a girl that wasn't his girlfriend.

Yet, he also knew that Bones was not a bad influence. He liked more than he should for a reason. She looked beyond herself to help others. Even people she didn't know well.

"Okay, okay people. We take five and then we come back!" Alejandro announced as he turned down the music.

The rest of couples quickly separated from their partners. Booth stood with his arm still wrapped around her waist for a while. I didn't seem right to let her go so soon. Brennan was the one who let go of Booth. The proximity was making her head spin.

"I think I'm going to talk to Angela," she said as she left his side. It took a moment for Booth to process her words.

"I'll come," Booth added.

…

Angela was standing next to her partner when they approached.

"Hey Seeley, hey Temperance, this is Marco!" she said taking sips from her water bottle. Marco massaged his ankle as she talked.

Booth and Bones waved at the man. He waved back.

"Angela can we speak to you for a moment?" Bones asked.

"O yea, of course!" Angela said as she remembered why they were here.

They scooted off to the side. Angela and Bones sat at the two available seats as Booth took a seat next to Bones on the floor. Black and white. The girl should get seat before the man.

"So, was there anything else you knew about Jane and Andrea? Why they broke up?" Booth asked

"Um, well Jane wasn't too specific about the details. Just Andrea was pushing for more… and Jane wasn't ready," Angela said she fanned herself.

"What do you mean by more?" Bones asked

"I'm not quite sure. Maybe Jane wasn't ready to tell her parents she was gay. Andrea is fairly open about her sexuality in certain circles. Many of my LGBT friends back home said that worst thing about being closeted was about not being able to express yourself like straight people or couples. Going out at movies, holding hands and such,"

"LGBT?" Booth asked

"Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community," Bones clarified.

"O," Booth responded as he contemplated his next words, "I know Jane's parents. I don't believe Jane's mother would have approved."

"I agree," Angela added

"Do you think their break-up has anything to do with her disappearance?" Booth asked

"I don't think so. It was months ago and in all honesty Andrea was the one heart broken. Jane just kept telling me it was for the best. If you ask me something else was going on," Angela replied

"Like what?" Bones asked

"Come on. Five minutes is over!" Alejandro announced.

Angela got up. "Well, I think it had to do with her mother. Jane had her art hung at the gallery I worked at. When her family came to visit for an opening, I saw her mother slap her across the face when they were speaking privately. The slap was hard. Jane almost cried," Angela said in deep thought, "I asked Jane if she wanted help. She told me not to bother, it wouldn't make a difference. I told her parents weren't allowed to treat their children that way. She told me that her parents weren't abusive. Her mother had just lost her temper."

"Angela! Marco is waiting!" Alejandro yelled.

Angela wiped a tear from her eye. She was remembering the night clearly now. Maybe she should have told someone.

….

When the class was over, Booth finally got his jeans back. Bones was the first one he dropped off. She was the closest. They didn't speak about Jane during the car ride, they all just listened quietly as Jared rambled on about his new friend, Stacy.

Booth hoped Jared could understand that this was a one-time thing. They couldn't afford the dance lessons.

"Goodnight everyone!" Bones said as she climbed out of the car.

They all waved back and Bones made her way to the front door.

"You're walking a precarious line Booth," Angela whispered from the back seat. Angela and Booth had a very understanding relationship. They were both very intuitive people and able to communicate in a limited verbal level.

"I know Angela, I know," Booth said as he waited for Bones to open her front door. He always waited for the girl to open her front door before he left the curbside. It was the right thing to do. Black and white. He wondered why it felt so gray.

…

Bones sat on the kitchen table silently as she twirled her food around. She wasn't hungry; she was just very deep in thought.

Mary Johnson looked worried. "Are you okay, Tempy?"

Bones looked up suddenly. "Yes, I'm fine."

She traced the scar on her right arm. Then she touched her cheek, she felt the shadow of the pain of being slapped. Jane's face flashed in her head. Somehow, the two occurrences seemed intertwined. Jane seemed more like her everyday.

"Maybe you should go lie down," Mary offered. Brennan nodded and lifted her plate. She lifted herself from the chair in the same motion and lost grip of the plate. It came crashing down hard.

Bones gulped as she looked at the broken plate on the floor. She looked up to see Mr. and Mrs. Johnson with worried looks on their faces.

Her hand started to shake. "I can fix it! I swear!" she told them trembling. She knelt down to pick up the broken pieces.

"Honey, don't touch the broken plate! You'll get hurt!" Mary exclaimed as she got up from her chair.

"No it's fine. I can fix it," Bones explained gathering the pieces of ceramic in her shirt.

"Temperance, put the plate down. The pieces might cut you," Eric Johnson replied as he grabbed his cane and lifted himself from his chair. Bones wasn't acting like her usual self.

"Mr. Johnson, please sit. I have this," Bones explained as she grabbed the last piece and ran to the kitchen. She threw the broken pieces on the counter top and then tried looking for the glue in the cabinets.

"Tempy, please it's okay. Let's us throw the plate away," Mary explained as she rushed after Brennan.

"But it's important. This was your mothers. You told me it was important and I broke it… please don't send me way! I can fix it," Bones said she rummaged through the cabinets still trembling. Eric touched her trembling hand, the one with the faded scar. It made her flinch but it also made her stop.

"Temperance, it's fine. We aren't going to send you away for breaking a plate. Things like this happen," he told her gently trying to calm her down. She took a deep breath in and out.

"Can I go bed, please?" she asked him with watery eyes. She didn't want to talk about what just happened.

He nodded and she walked out of the kitchen to her room. Flashbacks took over her mind when she finally reached her bed. She remembered the face of her social worker as she told her the story and showed her the cut. The other bruises had faded but the cut, which was now a scar, had lingered.

They had told Bones not to tell the social worker. She did anyway. She had never regretted it.

**Cam's house…**

Cam and Rebecca were on the edge of the bed, when the timer went off. Rebecca didn't make a move, a part of her didn't want to know. She had been holding her string of denial so long that she didn't want let go. Instead she held Cam's hand a little tighter.

"I can't do it Cam. Check for me please," Rebecca pleaded

Cam got up slowly and looked down at the three devices. They all said the same thing. She turned to look at her nervous best friend.

"Positive," Cam whispered, "you're pregnant."


	9. Rumors

**This is the third update this week. I mention this for the readers who don't check daily (it's so you don't accidently skip chapters) **

The morning felt robotic for Booth, like he was just going through the motions. He dropped off his little brother early so that he could meet up with Rebecca. Nothing felt real as he went about his morning routine. Even his breakfast tasted like nothing.

He waited by the usual spot with a couple of his teammates. They talked about last night's basketball game and how excited they were about the homecoming game next Friday. He didn't care much and added few comments. He kept checking his phone for Rebecca's call. When she finally arrived, he immediately knew that something was up. They had known each other for ages; there wasn't much of a mystery to her.

She pecked him on the mouth. His friends teased. She rolled her eyes.

"Can we talk somewhere more private?" He asked her and she nodded. She wasn't herself at all. They moved slowly to a more private corner.

"Are you okay Rebecca?" he asked her trying to read her mind. It wasn't a fight with her parents. She'd be more combative. It wasn't school; they weren't even a week in.

"I'm fine," she whispered

"What happened yesterday at the pizza parlor? You weren't exactly yourself," he pursued

"Yeah sorry about that, I just had… something on my mind," she responded without looking him in the eye. She was keeping something from him. He knew it.

"Well what's on your mind?" He asked as he tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. Sometimes she just needed a bit of coaxing. She leaned into his hand. He had a patented way of calming her down. She could see him raising their children in big white house with royal blue shutters. It all seemed so perfect. Yet, he hadn't said those three magic words to her.

She had wanted to wait for him to say it on his own. She didn't want to do it this way. She didn't want to be pulling teeth to get it out of him. The first warning bell rang for class. She waited for it to stop ringing. He didn't move. He was solid good man. The kind of man she always pictured herself marrying. She couldn't picture herself with anyone else. The image wasn't the same.

"Do you love me Booth?" she asked timidly. The coy act wasn't her usual style.

He smirked. "Of course I love you. What kind of question is that?" He asked her with a puzzled expression.

She shook her head. He didn't get it. Her question wasn't phrased right. Of course he loved her. He loved her like a sister or a friend, but that wasn't the answer she was looking for.

"No, I mean… are you IN love with me?" She asked. He gulped and his eyes were so open that he had to blink. He turned slightly only to spot blue. SHE was walking next to that mop haired boy again.

He looked back at his girlfriend. It was like if had never noticed she also had blue eyes. They weren't the same shade. He wasn't sure what to do. He wasn't sure what he felt. He wasn't sure why at that exact moment he saw Bones in the crowd. His eyes were like a magnet to her presence. Destiny was playing tricks on him. He wasn't sure if he was listening correctly.

"Yes?" Booth whispered back. The sound was barely audible and the single word sounded like question. Rebecca kissed him anyway. She was having a baby and maybe the hormones were getting to her. She could already picture the big white wedding, the house with blue shutters, the porch they'd have as grandparents. The final bell rang and Rebecca smiled. Booth smiled back, her mood had lifted and he was late. She kissed him quickly and said, "We'll talk later."

…

Booth entered his Biology class confused. The teacher reprimanded Booth for being late, but only gave him a warning. Booth took his usual seat next to Bones. Mr. Quill was being forced, by the school, to show the horrendous safety video that taught the students common sense. It was completely unnecessary in his opinion and the lesson could be done much faster verbally. Nonetheless it was policy since his class had a hand full of experiments including the fetal pig dissection later on in the semester.

"Did you ask cam yet?" Bones whispered

Booth didn't catch on. His mind was somewhere else. "Huh?"

"About the files in the police department?" Bones continued in a whisper. The video started playing and Mr. Quill turned off the lights. The room became dark.

"No sorry I haven't. I'll do it during lunch…" he trailed off with questions still filling his mind.

Bones turned to see the video. She had seen it before; she also thought it was completely unnecessary.

Booth looked at her in the dark. Her pale skin seemed to glow. Her brown hair contrasting against her skin perfectly. She was beautiful. There was no doubt about it. He wasn't sure he had been fully aware of that fact. It could have easily been the first thing you noticed about her. He searched the room and found a few boys stealing a peak at her. If he wasn't her partner would they try to move in on her? The thought disturbed him so he placed his arm possessively over her chair. The boys quickly turned around to face the video instead.

He knew them and they weren't for her. He wasn't jealous. He wasn't… He was just looking out for her… like a big brother. Maybe fate had brought them together. Did she believe in fate?

…

Booth was on his way to lunch when a scrawny kid with a notepad approached him.

"Hey there Booth!" he said. He had no idea who the kid was but out of politeness he stopped for him. The locker halls were emptying out as everyone made their way to the cafeteria.

"Hey… you" Booth replied. He was absolutely sure he had never met the guy. He was probably a freshmen by the looks of him.

"You don't remember me do you? We had math together last year. I literally sat behind you," the boy said in hopeful tone.

Booth shook his head. "Sorry I'm drawing a blank," Booth admitted

"Well any way, my name is Lance. I'm the school paper's editor in chief. I'm actually chasing the Jane story and a little birdy told me that you were trying to solve the mystery. Any updates I should know about?" the boy said

"You heard wrong," Booth said and started to walk away. He wasn't about to tell the school newspaper anything about Jane's secrets. They were personal and he wasn't looking for glory.

Lance chased him down. "I heard this from a very reliable source. I can keep your name anonymous?" he stated

Booth turned around. "Listen, I'm not working on the mystery. Get lost."

"But… but, the source also told me that you're working with the new girl. Umm…" he said looking over his notes, "Temperance Brennan."

Booth rolled his eyes started to walk away again. Lance jumped in front of him. "Come on, this is the kind of hard hitting story my newspaper needs this semester!"

Booth tried to calm down but this kid was getting on his last nerve. "Lance, this is my final warning. You keep yapping your mouth and I'll personally introduce you to a trash bin."

Lance frowned and moved out the way. Booth walked toward the cafeteria and quickly scanned it to find Bones. He founded her next to the squints with a boy in a backward baseball cap. He made her way toward her.

"Hey Bones, can I talk to you for a bit?" he asked ignoring anyone else.

"Sure," she said as excused herself from the conversation. They moved a couple of feet from the table.

"If this guy named Lance comes up to you asking about Jane. Tell him nothing, pretend you don't know what he's talking about," he told her in a rush

"Why?" Bones asked a bit confused. Her train of thought wasn't often in line with his.

"The guy works for the school newspaper. He wants to turn the mystery into the story. I don't want that," Booth explained

Bones shrugged. "Fine," Bones said with a smile.

Booth nodded his head. "Good, well I'll talk to you soon." He walked away surprised on how easy it was. It seemed she wasn't looking for recognition at all.

…

Cam and Rebecca were in the lunch line together in silence. Cam hadn't been sure what to say. Rebecca half ran out of her house.

"Are you going to keep it?" Cam whispered to her.

"What kind of question is that! I'm catholic!" Rebecca said raising her cross on her necklace. It was her grandmother's and her prized possession, mainly because it was the most expensive thing in her jewelry box.

"Not really. You're kind of a holiday catholic. You show up to mass at Christmas and Easter," Cam commented, "Booth is the one who attends Sunday mass."

"Well it's his kid too. I am sure he'd be against any type of aborting," Rebecca said

"So it's his?" Cam asked

"Seriously Cam! What kind of questions are these?!" Rebecca responded.

"I was just curious. You said you going to wait until he said those three magic words," Cam commented

Rebecca pursued her lips and breathed in deep. "It's his CAM! He told me he loved me a few weeks ago!" Rebecca said with flared nostrils.

"Calm down Rebecca. I was just asking," Cam responded. Somehow, things weren't adding up. Rebecca paid for her lunch first and ran off to their usual table. Cam rolled her eyes. Rebecca was adult child ninety nine percent of the time.

Cam was paying for her meal when Booth approached her.

"Hey Cam," he said

"Hey Booth," she said nervously. She wasn't sure if Rebecca had told him yet. She didn't like keeping secrets from him. Suddenly the room felt stuffy.

"Man, it's like we haven't talked in ages," he started

Cam nodded her head. He grabbed a drink to go and she waited for him.

"You okay? You seem… nervous. Am I starting to have an effect on you?" he teased her.

Cam rolled her eyes in exasperation. She had to admit that when she first met him, she did like him. As time went by, it was clear to both of them that they didn't possess that spark. They had friendship chemistry and that was all.

"How could a gal resist such raw charm?" she said in a tone thick with sarcasm.

Booth smiled and took a sip of his coke. "So I wanted to ask you a favor. Could I snoop around the police office?"

She looked at him with amused shock. "Excuse me!? What for?"

"I'm working on something," he said trying to keep it casual.

Cam's eyebrow went up and she stopped short of their usual table. Booth took a fry from her plate. He was starved.

"Hey! Hands off my food and you have to give me more details about this 'project' of yours," she said with a wicked smile.

"A friend and I are trying to solve the Jane mystery," he said in a whisper

"Does Chase know?" Cam said. Chase was a bearable entity in Cam's book. He had good heart to him but he did very stupid things from time to time.

"No, and I would like it to stay a secret between us," Booth said as grabbed another fry. Cam rolled her eyes at his eating habits.

"Who's the friend?" she asked before she answered

"You don't know her"

"Her? As in the blue eyed girl everyone keeps talking about. You better watch out because rumors are spreading like wild fire. Andrew said he saw you two canoodling in biology class. I know that's lie but try explaining that to crazy Rebecca. I'm trying very hard to keep the rumors down," She said almost all in one breath.

Booth gave her a look.

"Have you talked to Rebecca lately? I mean since the pizza parlor," Cam said rubbing her head. All this social and secret juggling was giving her migraine.

"Yea, we talked this morning. She seemed a bit upset at first, but we talked some of it out," Booth responded a bit on his toes. Cam was vicious when she was on a mission.

"Talked what out?" she asked. She wished Rebecca had told him already.

"Stuff"

"Did she tell you?" she said trying to get him to tell her.

"Tell me what?"

She assessed him for a bit. He didn't know. Bloody Rebecca hadn't told him yet. _Crap!_ Cam hated keeping secrets from him.

"Did she need to tell me something? All she asked me is whether I loved her or not," Booth answered. It was much easier to talk to Cam about this stuff than Chase.

"What do you mean? Hadn't you told her already?" Cam said with widened eyes.

"Not in so many words. I just wanted to be sure when I finally told her," Booth said scratching his head. This conversation always made him nervous.

"So let me get this straight. You hadn't told her you loved her?" Cam said straightening out the details.

"Not really," he answered

Cam couldn't bring herself to ask if they had, had sex yet. It wasn't that the topic was off limits in their friendship. It was that she was afraid of the answer. She gulped. _O god, Rebecca what are you doing_?

"So is that a yes or no?" he asked

"What do you mean?"

"The files, can I look at them?" he asked her

Cam looked down at the floor. She couldn't look Booth in the eye right now. She just hoped Rebecca was telling the truth. She hoped her wild imagination was wrong.

"I work on Saturday," she whispered, "come then."

He gave her a big hug and ran off to tell Brennan.

**I guess I made Lance a reporter because he always wants to know the intimate details of Bones' and Booth's personal life. Anyway I wrote this chapter quickly because I really appreciated all the reviews. Thanks everyone :)**

**Again, I try to alternate between relationship progression and plot progression. Next chapter will help you solve more of the mystery ;) **


	10. The dragon

The next few days passed by without a skip. The team had a small lead as told by Angela, but nothing else made headlines. Bones argued that they should interrogate Jane's mother because she was a suspect. Suspect of what, she wasn't sure. The Jane mystery was going nowhere, at this point Booth was hoping she had actually runaway. If she had runaway then she was possibly alive.

It was Friday morning when Bones met up with Booth by his locker.

"I'm just saying if it was anyone else then we'd be knocking on her door asking her all sorts of questions," she said as he gathered his books from his locker.

"But she's not Bones. She's Mrs. Simms," he said with all the patience he could muster. Bones had been dying to investigate Margaret since their dance lesson.

"So! It's logical!" she countered.

"Yes but not ethical. Margaret is not only the mayor's wife but she's also Jane's mother. Don't you think she's dealing with enough already?" he responded as he closed his locker. They began walking to their first class of the day.

"The better the reason to ask questions, if she really wanted to find her daughter then she'd help us"

"The answer is no, Bones. We are not the police and we can't just do that type of thing. Plus Angela said Margaret slapped Jane. She didn't say she threatened to kill Jane or anything like that. What could we ask her? What if the slap was a completely isolated situation that had nothing to do with her disappearance?"

Bones thought about it for a moment. "Fine, but we need to be doing something," she said with a frown

"Tomorrow we'll take a look at the files. Maybe we'll find something the police missed," Booth suggested as he opened the classroom's door for Bones.

"Fine" Bones agreed. Booth had a way of calming her down when her emotions got the best of her.

**Saturday Morning…**

_beep! Beep! BEEP! BEEP!_

Bones tapped the snooze button on her alarm clock. They were supposed to meet Cam at nine when her father went patrolling and the office quieted down. Cam worked as her dad's weekend secretary.

Bones jumped in the shower and got dressed as soon as possible. She came down stairs in a rush.

"Hey Mary!" she said as she got into the kitchen. She hunted for a quick bite and found toast.

"Good morning Tempy, where are you off to so early?" she asked as flipped the last pancake onto the stack.

"I'm meeting Booth at the police station. We're researching something," she said as she took some bacon.

"You aren't going to have a proper breakfast? Have him come over, I'll feed him too," she said with a giant smile. She was so excited that Tempy was finally making friends. She had been worried for a bit but now Tempy was spending her time with the star quarterback. It made Eric jump with glee. He really liked Booth.

Tempy smiled at Mary's enthusiasm. "We have to be somewhere at nine. Maybe next time?" Temperance responded. Mary didn't ask too many details about her goings. She raised three teenagers already and she knew they liked space.

"Okay, be safe," Mary said as she shared a smile with temperance. Temperance wasn't big on hugs.

…

Booth was waiting with his brother on the same bench they waited in last time. He looked at Jared's face and the bruise had faded. Booth recalled the beatings his father had given him when he was younger. His father had retired his methods long ago. Booth's father had never touched Jared abusively until last week. Booth promised himself that he wouldn't allow Jared to share the same childhood as he. He didn't know why he had never told anyone about the physical abuse he had experienced. He felt it was some family loyalty or something like that. He wasn't sure but in his mind, the past was the past. Jared was his future and he wasn't going to let anything happen to his little brother.

He didn't like remembering his childhood very much. Some of the worst beatings sometimes slipped into his conscious thought, like when Angela talked about Jane at the gallery. Booth was sure he had it handled with his father and Jared. Jared would never be with his father alone. Booth could now handle his father if he got into one of his episodes. He wondered from time to time if it was the military that made his father this way. He could hear his father screaming at night sometimes. Night terrors. Though, Booths grandfather had been the military too, and he wasn't like Booth's father. Maybe it varied from person to person.

Booth never really knew his mother. She abandoned them when he was young. His dad was still a teenager when Booth was born. He served his time in the army and then when he returned his wife left him. There are some pictures of her in the attic but Booth had no memories. He was two when she left.

Jared's mom, he remembers. She was beautiful and so nice. Booth thought of her as an angel because the beatings stopped when she arrived. His father picked his act and got married. She died three years ago because of a malignant brain tumor. They caught it late and she didn't pull through. So now Booth was in charge of his brother.

Jared yawned as they waited.

"What are we doing here again?" Jared asked

"Just visiting Cam and doing a little research," Booth replied shaking his brother's hair.

"Hey!" Jared protested. Booth laughed.

Jared spotted Bones first.

"There she is!" he said as she came walking.

"Hey Temperance!" Jared screamed

Booth smiled wider and waved. Booth looked at his watch, she was right on time.

"Hey Jared, hey Booth!" she said when she was close enough

"Hey Bones, Cam should be waiting for us," Booth said

"Will you ever stop calling me that?" she asked but it was diffused by her smile.

Booth laughed. "I don't think I can call you anything else. You're Bones to me," he confessed

"I'll call you Temperance!" Jared proclaimed

"Thank you Jared. I guess some men in the Booth Family have courtesy," Bones said with a wry smile.

Booth shook his brother's hair again. "Well aren't you such a gentleman," Booth teased

"Seeley!" Jared whined as he fixed his hair again.

…

Cam was sitting at the reception's desk when they arrived.

"Hey guys, what a surprise!" She said loud enough for the whole office to hear.

Bones looked at her bewildered. "Didn't Booth tell you we were coming?" she asked

Cam shook her head slightly and smiled too widely. "No he didn't," Cam responded

"Booth! You said you asked her," Bones chastised Booth

Booth leaned over to whisper in her ear. "She's playing surprised for the crowd. Just go with it, this isn't exactly legal," Booth said

Bones eyes widened in embarrassment. The social conduct was suddenly clear.

"Well, I SHOULD remind him NEXT time," Bones said overacting her part. She winked at Booth and he almost laughed at her exaggeration.

"He's always forgetting these days," Cam continued, "Well come on come see my desk."

All three of them followed her to her desk. She came around to stand by Booth. She leaned in to whisper.

"The files are confidential and I strongly recommend that you don't grab the key on my desk to open the lock door," she said as she placed the key next to his hand, "There are three employees today. I'm going to walk away from my desk to take a coffee break. I'll be gone for ten minutes exactly. There is a copy machine in the locked room. _Don't _copy the files to take home. I'll take Jared with me."

Cam turned toward Jared. "Would you like doughnut Jared? Poor Booth isn't much of cook," she joked

"Yeah!" he exclaimed as Cam grabbed his hand, "Would like one Bones?"

"Sounds delici…" Bones started

"But Bones I wanted to show you something," Booth said trying to get his point across.

"What did you want to show me?" she asked cheerfully

"The thing we came here for," he said

"Ooooo, yes, yes of course. The _thing_," she said with another wink.

…

Booth and Bones went to the back of the office quietly as the rest of the employees went about their business. One of them was on the phone talking intently to a friend. The other was rummaging through a file and the last one reading a newspaper. They got by inconspicuously. The perks of being in a small town, no one ever expected the unexpected.

Booth used the key on the door and got it opened quickly.

"Okay so we have nine minutes left, where should we start?" Booth whispered

"The system is organized in chronological order. Give me second. She was reported missing almost three weeks ago. So…" she said she looked under August, "here we go, Jane Simms. It still says runaway on it. Are we taking it as a whole?"

"Cam suggested we copy it," Booth said as he heard voices.

"_Are you getting something from the file room Officer Grey?" _Booth heard in Cam's distinct voice. She was giving him a warning. He grabbed Bones and ducked behind the massive copier. There weren't many places to hide. This room was reserved only for the most recent cases. It was not very big.

"_Yes, I'd thought I'd look over the swamp body again," _a man answered as he opened the door.

"Booth! What are you doing?" Bones asked. He had no time to explain so he placed his hand over her mouth. The crapped space between the corner wall and the copier was making Bones uncomfortable.

"_Cam the door is unlocked?" the man asked_

"_Someone must have forgotten to lock it," _Cam said as she held her breath. She was going to be in big trouble if they found Booth and Bones.

The man looked carefully in the room. He walked in slowly.

Bones was trying not breathe hard, but she felt crowded. Booth's hand over mouth made her feel constricted. She didn't like small spaces. It reminded of her last foster family and the incident that caused her reassignment. Her foster parents had locked her in the trunk of a car for two days. She had broken a dish and it hadn't been the first thing she had broken. She was clumsy. They warned her not break anything else but the water was so hot and the soap was so slippery. She could still remember the sound it made when it crashed on the floor.

Her foster dad hit her repeatedly and had her pick up the pieces of the glass plate. When she cried, her foster dad picked up a piece of broken glass and slashed her right arm. He said if she was going to cry then she should cry for a reason. He then placed her in the trunk for two days. Her foster mom left her there. Sometimes doing something is just as bad as doing nothing.

Bones closed her eyes and tried to think of a better memory. She stared to tremble, so Booth held her tighter. He held her tighter to calm her. He could tell that something had clicked.

Officer Grey looked through September's files and found his target file. He left abruptly.

Booth let go of Bones as soon as the door shut. She crawled out of the space quickly. She was breathing hard and fast.

"What happened?" he asked in a worried tone.

"Nothing, I'm just claustrophobic," she explained. She turned on the copier as she calmed her breaths.

"Well come on let's copy the files and get out of here," she told him. He handed her the file and she ran it through the machine.

…

They walked through the office inconspicuously. Nobody suspected a thing. Jared came back with a face full of doughnut.

"These are so yummy!" he proclaimed.

Booth smiled and looked at Cam purposefully.

"Well, I have tons of work to do," Cam said, "You guys should get going. Thanks for stopping by."

Booth placed the key on her desk and she quickly picked it up. Bones nodded. She was still reeling from her episode.

…

They had all promised to meet Zach and Jack at the pizza parlor. When they arrived, Zach and Jack were at their regular booth.

"Temperance!" Zach yelled

Booth, Bones and Jared made a beeline to the booth.

"Hey Zach, hey Jack," She said she sat down. Booth waved at them.

"Who's the kid?" Jack asked

"My brother," Booth said as he pulled a chair for himself.

"I'm Jared!"

"Do you really think it's appropriate to bring a kid his age?" Zach asked

"Hey I found the bones!" Jared argued

"That reminds me. Vincent is an old buddy of mine. He's the intern keeping the corpse intact, he's going to let us take a peek at it tomorrow," Jack said with a grin on his face

"For how long?" Bones asked she pulled out the copied file.

"For as long as we want. The coroner doesn't come back into town until Monday," Jack said rubbing his hands in excitement

"I think I might skip that activity. I won't be much help there," Booth added

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"So what was in the files?" Zach asked

"We haven't looked yet. The file was pretty thin. A few interviews and a copy of her runaway letter was the bulk of it," Bones said

"Let me see the runaway letter?" Jack asked with his hands out.

"Why?" Bones asked as handed him the copy of the copied letter from her diary.

"To see if it's fake or find any hidden codes," Jack answered with a smile.

He read the letter out loud.

_Dear Family,_

_By the time you read this letter I should be far, far away. I just wanted to leave you this journal in memory of me. _

_Your daughter and sister, Jane_

"Kinda short," Zach judged

"Not much of an explanation," Booth added

"I was really hoping for more," Bones commented

"What else is in file?" Jack asked

Bones placed the file on the table. There was a lot official paperwork. Four full interviews were done in total. The rest were some leads, and apparently none of them led the officers anywhere. Each one on the table took an interview.

Bones took Margaret's interview. Booth took the Mayor's interview. Jack took Andrea's interview. Zach took Chase's interview. Jared took a slice of pizza. He liked the pizza here. He looked at the rest of the paper work while the rest were busy reading.

Bones looked up from the paper. "Apparently she cried the entire interview. Nothing of consequence, her mother knew very little about her daughter," Bones admitted

"Her father wasn't much help at all. He told the interviewing officer to use all their man power to find her," Booth added

"Andrea hardly talked. Said she barely knew Jane. That's suspicious, she never said they dated during the interview," Jack explained

"Chase is an idiot," Zach proclaimed

"Did he say anything useful?" Booth asked

"Not much. He told them a few of Jane's favorite places and said Andrea was her friend. Beyond that he claimed he didn't have a clue of what could have happened to her," Zach answered

Jared giggled as he read through Jane's runaway note.

"What's so funny?" Bones asked

Jared looked up with a smile. "She writes funny."

Booth looked at the note again. Nothing looked 'funny'.

"Read the first page Seeley. It's a story about Dragons!" Jared said

The copied runaway letter featured the last entry of her diary. The file didn't have the diary with it, just the letter.

"Officer Saroyan made a note of it here," Zach said he pointed at the official paperwork, "he said the whole diary was a novel about a princess and a dragon. Jane's mother kept it for sentimental reasons."

Booth read the last page of her diary out loud.

_The great dragon let out his fire to scare the princess. The princess felt frightened, she knew she was going to die if the dragon had his way. She prayed to a higher being for strength. That's when the gallant knight came from the shadows. The knight waved a sword in the air and warned the dragon to stay away. The dragon called it a bluff and laughed in the knight's face. _

_The knight, full of repressed anger for all the things the wizard and the dragon had done to her, swung at the dragon quickly. The movement was fast, the dragon was dead. The princess was saved. The princess kissed the knight in glee. She was free from the dragon. She saw the great dragon fall into the river. The wizard would come for his revenge soon. She told the knight to run. The knight refused. The wizard was coming and the dragon's blood would attract him. _

"Interesting," Jack commented

"A serious artist Angela said," Booth added

"I don't get it?" Zach replied

"We need the diary," Booth said

"Why?" Zach asked.

"The body in the swamp?" Bones assessed trying to keep up with Booth's train of thought.

"Is the dragon in the story," Booth replied.

**Thanks for reading :) **


	11. Instincts

"Mystery solved you guys!" Jack repeated, " It's easy. Ol' Mayor Simms was doing the town dirty. Lil' Jane finds out but her mom tells her to shut up about it. Presto! Her mom makes her disappear. Mrs. Simms is the wizard."

Booth looked him over. Jack was one odd fellow. His theories about the case always led back to the Mayor.

"Then who's the dragon?" Zach asked

Jack huffed. "Anyone can poke holes in a story Zach. It takes brains to come up with good enough one," Jack replied

"If it was a good story then I wouldn't be able to poke holes in it," Zach responded

"Okay, okay both of you. We obviously we don't have enough information yet," Booth intruded

"We need that diary," Bones added

"How do we get it? The Simms probably burned it already," Jack asked

"We need to search their house," Booth stated. He tried to focus on the possibilities by thinking out loud.

"Chase's party," Zach said.

Booth's eyes widen. Of course! Chase's back to school party was tonight. Mr. and Mrs. Simms were visiting Marvin Junior, Margaret's older brother.

"You think you could do it by yourself?" Jack asked

"Why? You guys can come," Booth replied nonchalantly

"Not really, Jack and I won't be allowed. If a football player even catches glimpse of us we'll be thrown out," Zach said, "we're squints."

"Well, what about Bones?" Booth said as turned to look at her.

"I'm part of the squint crowd. If they're not allowed, then I'm pretty sure I won't be allowed," Bones deduced

"Plus, wasn't it invited only?" Zach asked

"They only say that to scare off… you know … the squints," Booth said trying not to offend them, "Everybody ends up coming. You just need to know the right friends."

Booth was sure he could get Bones in, no problem. Explaining to Rebecca the reason behind Bones' invitation was the only tricky part.

"Well, what if she had a date?" Zach postulated

"Like a really popular guy," Jack added

"Interesting, like whom?" Bones asked

"Wait she doesn't need a date," Booth intruded, "I got this."

"What about that reporter, you know the one who keeps asking us questions," Jack added ignoring Booth.

"That guy! I doubt he was even invited. I don't even want him there. Really, I'll just take Bones in myself," Booth responded

"Yeah, like that won't look suspicious! Rebecca on one hand, Temperance on the other. One or the other Booth, you can't have both," Zach argued. The words sliced through Booth.

"The reporter sounds like a bad idea," Bones added, "We'd have to tell him what we were doing and Booth doesn't want that."

Booth nodded his head. Zach's words replayed in his head.

"So we need someone on the inside who already knows what we are doing," Zach said thinking out loud.

"I'm the only guy who fits that description," Booth contended

"Well then maybe you'll have to go alone," Zach said to Booth. Booth frowned.

"Wait no, I know someone," Bones said having a breakthrough, "Sully!"

"No way! Sully … he's … he's…" Booth stammered

"Popular," Jack added

"He knows about our plans," Zach furthered.

"And he's fairly good looking," Bones finished. Booth lost his vocabulary for the moment. He struggled to find the right words.

"No, he's wrong," Booth argued

"Why?" Bones asked

"Because, because … he's short," Booth said internally berating himself. Short? What kind of answer was that?

"Short? He's not that short," Bones said thinking about Sully. He was a few inches taller than her. She was tall. Sully wasn't short. He was shorter than Booth but he wasn't short.

"I'm just saying you probably can't even wear heels around the guy," Booth countered. If he was going out to the deep end then he's might as well try to swim before he sank.

"I'm just tall," she refuted

"I'm taller," Booth replied with a smile. Bones smiled back.

Jack looked at Jared then at Zach. Zach looked back at him.

"Am I missing something here? Maybe interrupting something," Jack said with a heavy load of implication.

Jared rolled his eyes. "My brother's tall. Temperance could wear those high shoes if she wanted to with him, duh," Jared replied. Seriously what would the team do without him…

…

As they exited the pizza parlor, Zach followed Jack to his car. Booth was giving Bones a ride back home.

He opened the car door for her and his little brother and then made his way to the driver's seat.

When he sat down he looked through his phone contacts.

"I'm not even sure I have Sully's number anymore. Cam dated him like year ago," Booth stated as he scrolled through his contacts

Brennan looked up at him with a smile. She was busy texting someone at the moment. "Why do you need his number? I could give it you," Brennan said

"You have it already?" Booth asked incredulously. She was new to the school, how did she have his number?!

"Yes, he gave it to me yesterday. He likes me," Brennan said without a hint of inflection. Some social conventions were a mystery to her but boys were easy. Boys who liked her were simple.

"He likes you? Did you ask him to the party already?" Booth asked as he turned on the car and pulled out of the curb.

"Yes, he said that he'd love to take me," Bones replied with a smile

Booth bit his lower lip to make himself stop talking.

"He seems like a nice guy," Bones commented as Booth blew through a yellow light. She didn't trust herself. Her instincts weren't the best but Booth would know. Booth had good intuition. She wondered what Booth thought about Sully.

"Sully…. Sully's like a puppy. You can't hate the guy 'cause he's one of the good guys," Booth commented

"He's captain of his soccer team, president of the school, and he's trying to get motorcycle license. Is all of that true?" Bones asked with giant smile. If Booth said Sully was good, then it had to be true. She trusted Booth, he was genuine.

Booth rolled his eyes. "Sully's … a jack of all trades. I guess that's cool… you know if like sort of thing, being good at everything but not mastering anything," Booth replied

"I like sully!" Jared commented from the back seat, "He was teaching me martial arts when he was Cam."

"He's very interesting," Bones observed as Booth pulled into her driveway. Mr. Johnson was mowing the lawn. He stopped as soon as he saw them.

"Look Bones, Sully's cool. I have nothing bad to say about the guy but do you really see yourself with this guy?" Booth asked as he turned off his car.

"I'm not going to marry the guy Booth," Bones responded

Eric came by Booth's window so Booth rolled it down.

"Seeley, you brought Temperance back home!" Eric commented enthusiastically

"Safe and sound, Mr. Johnson," Booth replied with grin.

"Good, why don't you come in? Mary is making ribs," Eric offered

"I couldn't intrude Mr. Johnson. I also have my little brother with me," Booth replied

Eric looked at him intently. "Nonsense Booth! You and your brother are always welcomed in my house. Plus I happen to know from experience that Mary always cooks too much food. She's so accustomed to her three boys in the house," Eric said as he waved as little Jared in the back seat.

Booth reminded himself that he hadn't eaten in the pizza parlor. Jared had but Booth felt uncomfortable taking what Hodgins had paid for. Bones didn't touch the pizza either. She said she was tired of having it almost every day.

"He's right," Bones commented

Booth looked back at his brother again. Jared had a big eager smile on his face. They didn't have anything else to do.

Booth looked back at Mr. Johnson. "Alright, but only if you let me finish mowing the lawn," Booth offered.

Eric smiled. "If it'd get you in my humble home then so be it, mow the lawn."

Booth turned to look back at Bones. She was smiling.

…

Bones looked fondly at Booth and Eric as they exchanged football stories. Even Jared in pee-wee Football would join in from time to time. Bones stayed patiently silent. She liked seeing Eric happy. She guessed Booth was like one of his sons, who Eric missed a lot.

"Back in my day we didn't have all your fancy safety equipment. A tackle could take you out for a week," Eric joked

Booth laughed. "Trust me Mr. Johnson, the tackles still hurt."

"Coach says I'm going to be just like Booth when I grow up big and strong," Jared commented as he stuffed his face with ribs. Booth laughed at his brother, he was eating so much he was going to explode today.

Eric smiled widely. "It's in that Booth blood. Your grandfather Hank was one hell of a player. Do you see him often?" Eric asked

"Pops? We see him all the time. I've been a little busy this week but I'll see him tonight. He's babysitting Jared tonight," Booth commented

"O, if you ever need a babysitter don't hesitate to call us Seeley," Mary commented with hopeful eyes

Booth smiled. "I won't," he replied

"But I'm not a baby Mrs. Johnson. Booth keeps saying _baby_sitting but I'm not a baby," Jared commented

Mary laughed. "Of course not Jared, I meant big boy sitting," Mary joked

Jared smiled at Booth who rolled his eyes.

"Why does he need big boy sitting?" Eric asked

"O I forgot to ask. Can I go to a party tonight?" Bones asked

"Bones and I are going to Chase's house. It's pretty low key," Booth lied

"As long as you bring her home safe and sound," Eric told Booth.

"O, I'm not going with him. I'm going with a boy named Sully. Booth is just going to be there. He has a girlfriend," Bones commented as she took bite of her corn on the cob.

"O, yes I remember Rebecca Stinson," Mary commented with a tight mouth. Rebecca Stinson was part of the town's exclusive club: the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was beautiful but she's a peculiar reputation for lying.

"Who's this Sully?" Eric asked feeling a bit protective. He had never had a daughter before, so the feeling was new and fresh.

"He's the captain of the soccer team and president of our school," Bones replied

"So he's a senior? I'm sorry I don't follow the soccer team," Eric responded. Booth smiled at Eric's comment.

"Yes, he's a senior," Bones added

"O I remember that boy. He's as sweet as they come. He was Camille Saroyan's date for her debut," Mary answered

Booth remembered that night. He was Rebecca's date. He wasn't the best dancer that night but Sully, a jack of all trades, made the rest of them look clumsy. Of course, Mary would like him.

"So I can go?" Bones asked

"Well, I don't see why not," Eric replied and turned to look Booth, "Keep an eye on her Booth."

"I won't let her out of my sight," Booth agreed. Well, at least Eric liked him more than Sully. Not that it should matter or did matter. It was just an observation Booth had made.

**Yeah, yeah ya'll hate Sully. I get it. It's just a part of the story. It's not exactly a love triangle. **

**Still using some of the show's quotes but I change them slightly to fit into the story. **

**Dandapanda, daisesadaffidols and Mychakk, you guys are my little muses :)**

**Nana25: Lol I read your comment in a British accent. I didn't know why until I realized I was channeling Oliver twist. 'What! What! Ask for more?'**

**Argh! **_**Gilmore girls**_** strikes again! The DAR**


	12. First and Only

It was ten at night when Cam saw Rebecca arrive. She excused herself from her cheerleading friends and walked over to Booth, who was talking to Angela about her art class. The party was still in its early stage so the Chase's mansion still felt spacious.

"She's here," Cam whispered in his ear. She had a good amount to drink already. Rebecca's secret had been eating away at her, so she begged Rebecca to tell him already. Rebecca had promised she would tonight when she was alone with Booth. Cam wanted it to happen sooner than later.

She tossed back another shot to keep her nerves calm and walked away quickly. Every time she saw Booth she wanted to tell him.

Angela smiled as she saw a nervous Cam head toward the kitchen. "What's up with her?" Angela asked since Cam was acting so unusual.

Booth shrugged. "I'm not sure but I think it has something to do with Rebecca. She wants me to speak with her," Booth stated still facing Angela. Suddenly Angela's smile grew wider.

"Well, well she's here," Angela whispered. Booth turned around lazily. Cam had already told him Rebecca was here. Except when he turned to look at his girlfriend, his eyes changed course and found Bones instead. She looked different. She liked to have her hair back in a bun but tonight she had it down in soft curls.

Most of the girls had on jeans and low cut shirts but she had on a sleeveless white summer dress. She looked like an angel as she walked in. Booth put down his drink and began walking toward her. Angela was the one that grabbed him by the elbow. As much as she wanted Booth to run to Temperance, it wasn't a good idea. He was still with Rebecca and Temperance would be the one getting hurt in the end. So Angela drew in her patience, as she reached to grab Booth. This had to be done right.

"Your girlfriend is walking up the stairs Booth," Angela told him. Booth stopped mid-step and turned to look at Angela.

"I told her foster dad that I would look after her tonight, I was just going to say hi," Booth explained quickly.

Angela smiled and nodded her head gently. He really wasn't doing anything blatantly wicked, but the two of them had crazy chemistry. The chemistry made the entire situation all shades of gray. Maybe they had _When Harry met Sally _complex? Two friends obviously attracted to each other but each refusing to admit it.

"I'm not doing anything wrong Angela," Booth said grimly.

"I know," Angela said patiently, "but don't open one door before closing another one."

She let go of his arm and he walked toward Bones again.

"Hey Bones!" Seeley said as he approached her.

Bones smiled. "Hey Booth, do you have a plan for today?" she asked as Sully came from behind and handed her a water.

"Sorry Temperance, it was this or alcohol," Sully stated.

"It's okay. I like water," she said as she opened the bottle, "Booth was about to brief us on his plan."

Sully looked up and finally noticed Booth.

"Hey Booth, Temperance was telling me all about your findings on the way over here," Sully said with a smile

Booth smiled to one side. The smile didn't touch his eyes even though it was genuine. "Well I was thinking we'd wait until eleven for the place to get crowded then make our way to the second floor," Booth explained

"Right, wait until peak hour so no one will notice us," Sully reasoned

"Right! The more people, the more secretive we can be. We wait too long and we risk the crowd declining from curfews," Booth explained.

"Why the second floor?" Bones asked

"I have a feeling it will in the master bedroom with Mrs. Simms belongings," Booth answered.

Bones nodded. "Okay, let's meet up at the foot of the stairs at eleven," Sully added as grabbed Bones' hand. The sight made Booth cringe slightly. Sully is a good guy he repeated in his head a few times.

"I should go find Rebecca," he said as he waved goodbye. Another thought crossed his mind as Sully whispered something in Bones' ear. _Sully is a good guy but he's not the guy for her._

…

Rebecca tried to open the guest bedroom with her old credit card. Chase had left them all locked. When she was finally able to slip the card through, a voice scared her.

"What are you doing Rebecca?" Chase asked. When she recognized the voice, she quickly calmed herself. It wasn't Booth. She snuck upstairs inconspicuously to ready his surprise.

"I need this room," she stated with a high chin.

"You got plans with Booth tonight?" He said as he got closer to her. She rolled her eyes as he cornered her to the bedroom door. One of his arms stretched on the door to balance himself.

"Yes, but I rather not hash all the gory details with you," she told him as he grabbed her chin to gently tug it down. Her haughty expressions were faux sign of self-assurance. He wanted to see her eyes.

"Gory? I didn't know you thought about it that way," he said as he flicked her nose with his, "You were thanking god the second time around."

She rolled her eyes and roughly smacked his hand off her chin. When he chuckled, she pushed him away and he obliged though her push was nearly nothing.

"I didn't it mean that way," she told him with deep breaths

"How did you mean it?" he asked with a mischievous grin.

"Both times never happened!" She told him crudely as she pushed him again. He stood his ground this time with a tight jaw.

"One time is one thing Rebecca," he said with pursed lips, "A second time is real."

He went to tuck a lock of hair behind ear but she smacked him away.

"Sex is good Rebecca," he explained rubbing his hand, "I don't know why you held out so long."

Rebecca grew angry. "I was smashed drunk both times Chase. At least with Seeley, I don't have to drink to do the deed," She spat

Chase's face grew hard suddenly but then it transformed into a wry smile. "You weren't that drunk, Rebecca. You knew exactly what you were doing."

Rebecca closed her eyes tightly making the memories disappear.

"There was time when you hadn't decided between Booth and me. It was freshman year and I wasn't surprised when Booth told me you kissed him. You always pretended to like him better but did you ever tell him you kissed me first?"

Rebecca opened her eyes again and grabbed the door knob. "You always hated that I picked him," she whispered and quickly entered the room. She tried to close it but Chase stopped it. He stood at the threshold.

"And you always regretted that decision," he told her

"I never regretted that decision. It's been the best decision I have ever made," she said as began to tear up, "He's exactly the man I want to marry and I will go to grave screaming that he was my first."

Chase looked her fiercely. "If he's exactly what you want, then why do you always run back to me?!" Chase demanded.

Rebecca didn't want to answer the question. The answer scared her.

Chase shook his head. "It's 'cause you know you don't belong with him. You can't make him love you. It doesn't work that way. You don't deserve him either," he told her in spite

"And what do I deserve? You? A guy who cheats on every girlfriend he's ever had?!" She yelled at him

Chase rolled his eyes. "I've never been dishonest with any of them," he told her

"Either way, I don't want you," she said wiping her tears away.

"It happened, Rebecca," he whispered to her as grabbed the door knob, "You can try all you want but it won't last."

Rebecca crossed her arms. "Go to hell Chase," she said

"Meet you there," Chase said as he slammed the door.

Rebecca slipped her hands her hair and pulled. Something needed to feel real at the moment, because she was losing her sanity. The entire room was silent for a while but the door opened again and she screamed, "Get out!"

"Are you sure?" Booth asked. She turned around quickly and wiped her eyes.

"O sorry, I thought you were someone else," she said

Booth looked worriedly at her. He approached her slowly. "What happened?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around her.

Rebecca stayed quiet for the moment as she thought about his arms. He was so warm and inviting. He was perfect, he was Booth. She loved him so much, that the thought of him leaving made her want to scream. She hated herself for betraying him. She hated what growing within her because she knew absolutely that it was Chase's baby. Chase was her first and only.

…


	13. Between a rock and a sail

**Sorry about the long waits, RL is hectic **

Brennan watched closely as the grandfather clock began a new minute. It was 11:14 at night but who was counting? Well actually… she was counting down every second. Booth had gone up those stairs more than hour ago and he hadn't returned. He was supposed to meet them at bottom of the stairs but he was officially fourteen minutes and thirty seven seconds late. She looked up the stairs again, hoping to see him rushing down. Her hope was made in vain.

"We could always just explore ourselves," Sully whispered to her.

His voice startled her a bit. "O… well maybe," she answered as she fiddled with her hands. She really wanted to wait for Booth. In reality, Booth wasn't necessary but going on without him didn't seem right.

Sully gently grabbed her hand to stop her from fiddling.

"If it gets too late then we might lose our window of opportunity," Sully explained kindly. He wasn't blind. He was aware that Brennan felt much more comfortable with Booth, so he spoke as kindly as he could. A pang of jealousy ran through him as she looked up the stairs for the hundredth time. Sully wondered to himself if Brennan felt more than just friendship for Booth. It had been in the back of his mind for awhile now; it just hadn't occurred to him how true it could have been.

Brennan looked over the crowd of people. Everyone seemed preoccupied, this was perfect timing. They could go upstairs unnoticed. Brennan gulped as she made up her mind.

"You're right, let's go," she answered. Sully quickly brushed the thought of Brennan and Booth away. Booth hadn't known her much longer than he had; plus Booth had a girlfriend. Sully gently took her hand and led her up the stairs past make-out row.

Brennan let him lead and took his hand in stride. She wasn't usually the one follow, but in this instance she didn't feel entirely herself. She felt slightly out of place in the sea of drunken teenagers.

When they reached the top of the stairs Brennan could hear her heart pound. She recalled some of the instances where she felt out of place or scared. The thought of Booth next to her usually calmed her a bit, but Sully didn't seem to have the same effect.

"Left or right?" Sully asked. Bones looked at him perplexed. He didn't know where he was going.

"You don't know where the master bedroom is?" She asked him

"Nope," Sully responded with a smile, "But if nothing's going right then go left."

Brennan's eyebrows furrowed in his response to his flawed logic. Then the thought hit her hard. The difference between Sully and Booth wasn't that one was nicer or friendlier. While Sully sailed through life touching everything in his path, Booth was a rock dedicated to creating foundation and affecting anything it touched.

"A little faith, Temperance," he answered her expression. He smiled charmingly at her as if he knew exactly what he was doing to gain some trust. He tugged lightly at her hand to lead her left.

"Faith isn't… it's illogical," she quietly argued as she let him tug her. She deduced that looking was the only way to find the master bedroom.

Sully chuckled. "Not everything should be logical… sometimes you just have to jump and see where life takes you," he replied softly as he spotted the double doors down the hall, "I'm betting the master bedroom is that one."

Brennan looked intently at the doors as she pondered his last words. "Jump where?" she asked as they reached the tall double doors. She didn't comprehend his train of thought.

"Off the cliff," he answered as he shook the handles. They were locked. He looked around as if had lost something and settled his eyes on her hair.

"Do you have any bobby pins? I am going to pick the lock," he asked her. She reached in her hair for it.

"You know how to pick a lock?" She asked. She hoped she wasn't with a small time criminal. She had a tendency of picking the wrong guys to date.

"Well kinda… I saw it on a you tube video," he explained

She simply smiled as she handed him the bobby pin. Sully wasn't horrible to be around; there was a certain charm to sailing through life. It didn't take him long to open the doors and she smiled widely when he did.

Once inside they split up. Sully took one night stand as Brennan took the other.

"Do you know what it looks like?" Sully asked as he rummaged through a drawer.

"There was a small description on the police files. It was made from brown leather," She explained. Then suddenly they heard voices coming from the hall way.

"_Did you leave your parent's door open?" a female voice asked_

"Did you hear that?" Sully asked Brennan in a whisper

Brennan nodded.

Sully looked left then right. On the right was a closet the size of normal room, it had no door to border it. On the left was a closed door. That was there best bet. He motioned for Brennan to follow him. Brennan nodded and half-ran across the room. They jumped in the room in the nick of time.

When the bedroom door open, the voices were much clearer.

"It doesn't look like someone has been in here," a male voice said

"So this is your parent's room?" the girl replied

"Yeah, Mr. and Mrs. Simms sure now to decorate. My mother has always preferred the gaudy type of furniture. Makes my house look like a medieval castle," the male voice replied.

_Brennan whispered in Sully's ear. "That's Chase and Angela," she said recognizing the voices. _

"So, have you ever done it on your parent's bed?" Angela asked slyly

Chase laughed. "Angela you dirty girl," he said

"Not dirty… just whimsically open minded," she responded with a smile

_Sully suddenly felt the need to open the door and scream 'wait!' He did not want to stick around for this, though the situation would be hard to explain. The thought was washed away when he felt Brennan shake. _

"_Are you okay?" he whispered in the closed space. It seemed to be a second closet though it was quite small. It had a lot of male clothing and heavy coats._

"_I d-d-don't like s-s-small spaces-s-s," she responded as she started to lose herself. The memories began to sink in. The illogical feeling that the room was getting smaller and warmer at the same time was beginning to overshadow all of her other senses. _

_She wanted out desperately. She needed out. She couldn't stay here. Her forehead was already matted with sweat. _

"_Out… out… out," she whispered to Sully _

_Sully tried to calm her but he gave her no sense of calmness. She couldn't even hear him. Her breaths were so heavy now. The room kept getting smaller and smaller. Then sense of never being able to get out was the overwhelming fear. _

Then suddenly like breath of fresh air, the door swung open.

"Sully! What the hell are you doing to Temperance!" Angela screamed as she saw Brennan hyperventilate.

"Nothing! We just… we were hiding in here and she… began to hyperventilate," he explained with scattered thoughts in his head. What to reveal? What not to reveal about the situation? Chase wasn't supposed to know what they were up to.

Angela pulled Brennan from the closet gently and sat her on the bed. Brennan's quick breaths didn't slow.

"Chase, go get a paper bag. It will help her breathing," Angela said and Chase ran out of the room.

Sully came crashing into reality as he stood in the closet. He looked at the spot where Brennan had just been. She had been sitting on a pile of boxes and there was small leather book on top of it. He had the sense to open the first page:

_To whoever is about to read my diary:_

_This is a collection of my most personal thoughts and dreams. I hope you can respect my privacy and never turn the first page over. Though if you must read, I must warn you that my innermost thoughts aren't about boys or school. My mind has created a space between reality and fantasy, a space that is not entirely true or real ant yet not fiction. This is my deeply twisted story, I warned you. _

Sully shut the page shut and slipped the book into his back pocket.

"Sully, what the hell?! Get over here!" Angela yelled at him as Chase ran back in with a paper bag.

Brennan breathed into it rapidly. She felt slightly faintish as she began to calm. She didn't want to be here anymore. She wanted to go back home and crawl into bed. She just wanted the rest of the world to melt away. She didn't like this feeling of loss of control. Then in the back of her mind, she thought of Booth. She didn't know why in this moment of such vulnerability that she wanted to see him.

Three pairs of eyes stared at her carefully, as if she was a ticking time bomb about to explode. They were all willing to help but she didn't want their help. Their presence brought her some anxiety and a sense of humiliation. As if for the rest of their lives, they would remember her as the girl who freaked out in a closet.


End file.
